Lost Time: From the Great Revelation Onwards
by merick
Summary: What if Bill Compton wasn't the first Vampire to come to Bon Temps? What if someone else did the recon? Set in the two years between the Great Revelation and the beginning of the SVM timeline. Appearances by several characters
1. Chapter 1

"You gonna be alright to get home this late Sookie?"

Sam Merlotte was finally locking up the front doors to Merlotte's, his bar, after what had been a long, and extremely eventful night. The pandemonium of Y2K had been less stressful than this night, he thought to himself now that things were finally quiet, and at least that night people had gone home at closing time. But of course the world hadn't actually ended at the stroke of midnight; tonight, well, a different fear had presented itself. Perhaps it would have been better if the power had gone out, then the TV's wouldn't have been able to broadcast the so-called Great Revelation. (Not that Sam hadn't known about the Vampires; he knew about a great many things, it came with the territory.) But the good citizens of Bon Temps had no idea, and Sam would have preferred it remain that way. Of course the choice hadn't been his, and he could certainly appreciate the gamble the Vampires had chosen to take. Not that he had any intentions of making the same choices; though if things went well for the Vamps he knew that his people might have to rethink their options.

The customers had stayed well into the night, he hadn't the heart to shoo them out, they needed the company, and the alcohol, and the sense that everything in their little world was still the same, when in fact, it was, and it wasn't. And of course Sookie had offered to stay with him to help; she'd been nearly as shell shocked as the rest at the announcement; but not as completely. There had been a wave of relief that he had sensed, coming off her once the fear had finished rolling through. Sam knew what it was all about. She'd only been working for him for a few months, and even without her admitting to it out loud, Sam knew that she had a supernatural gift of her own. Of course he had insider knowledge the folks of Bon Temps didn't. They chose more crude, and sometimes insulting labels for her talent, Sam knew she was a telepath, but he hadn't let on to her that he knew her secret.

And he now had even more than those secrets to consider. People were going to be more wary, and some, more afraid. And others, well he knew that others would more than embrace the new citizens who had suddenly 'come out of the coffin'. Most everyone would suddenly be more suspicious of everything that seemed out of place, which meant he was going to have to be more careful of his own activities. And of course there was Sookie. He followed her to the back, turning off the main lights in the building, considering what she must be thinking in the leftover glow of the taps and the dishwasher.

When the Vampires had come out Sookie could finally see that she wasn't alone in her otherness; at least that was what Sam saw in her expressions as he stole glances at her from behind the bar as the night had progressed. And he saw more manifestations of her courage, the thing he had always seen in her, as she stayed steady as others around her began to unravel. Sam had hired her because of her uniqueness, her innate intelligence and her innocence. And as he had come to know her, he had understood he needed to protect her from whatever would come looking (because someone would eventually come looking). The other feelings had come naturally.

But now it was nearly 3 am, the heart of darkness, the witching hour and he was alone, finally, looking at the beautiful blonde, her ponytail still pert, along with her sparkling blue eyes. Stowing her green apron in the laundry basket he had in his office (he washed them himself, at home, in the trailer across the parking lot) she was preparing to head home finally and he just felt as if he should say something to her.

"I can always drive you home if you want Sookie?"

"I'm okay Sam, not like any Vampires are going to be showing up in Bon Temps." She said with a happy lilt in her voice.

"I'll be up for awhile yet, will you at least call me when you get home?"

"Sure Sam."

"And say 'hi' to your Grandmother for me."

"I will."

He followed her to the rear door, and watched as she got herself situated behind the wheel of her old hatchback, waving at him as she turned the engine over, flipped on the headlights and started out of the graveled parking lot, at a sedate pace that only crunched the gravel in a comforting way as opposed to spraying it all about like her brother might have done in his pickup; the one with the ridiculous flames painted on the sides. His enhanced vision let him see her all the way to the road, bobbing her head along to whatever tune was on her radio just then.

"Such an innocent girl." Came the quiet voice behind him. He hadn't heard the being approach having been preoccupied, but he smelt him then, just like death.

"I was wondering when one of you might show up." Sam turned around slowly to face the Vampire who was now between himself and the dumpster that he paid to have emptied every Monday morning.

They were the same height, and even their eyes and hair were the same color, a quite normal brown (though Sam's did have a bit of a red hue to it in the right light). But the Vampire who stood before him, arms crossed, stock still, looked to be about sixteen years old, even though Sam suspected that he was far older than that.

"You could not have thought it would take us long, now that we have revealed ourselves?"

"No I suppose not. Though I hoped it might be a few more days at least." Sam turned half his mouth up into a twisted grin. He didn't really think anything about this Vampire's appearance was particularly amusing.

"A place like this, some kind of nexus for the supernatural? We have been watching it for years. The community of were-panthers not withstanding, there are other things here, the same things that likely drew you in Sam Merlotte."

"Oh, so you know my name, and what's yours? Just so we are on an even footing." Sam crossed his own arms over his chest and made an educated guess as to how fast he could shift to something quick and get to his front door in case the being lost his temper. His math didn't bear out the attempt.

"I see no harm in you knowing that. It is Andre. I work for Queen Sophie Ann."

"Any specific reason for coming to Bon Temps, besides curiosity?"

"Yes."

"But you aren't about to share that with me are you?"

"No."

Vampires were a cagey race; not that shifters didn't hold their own secrets close to the vest, but Sam had not really expected an answer.

"You should be careful, there are things about this place that even you may not be aware of."

"Indeed? But you may rest assured, I have no intentions of sullying our newly revealed presence with any dispersions against our characters of peace and inclusion."

"You practiced that line didn't you?"

The Vampire snorted with amusement.

"Never the less, it is true. I am simply here to observe."

"All the better for you then Andre."

"If I didn't know you better Shifter I would take that as a threat."

"You don't know me at all Vampire."

Sam kept his back straight and stared right at the Andre, who merely grinned at him. He was not stupid enough to try to convince himself that he felt no fear; but he wasn't about to let it roll off him in waves. He also had no illusions that his posturing was going to scare off this ancient thing in front of him, but if it gave him just a moment's pause about stirring up trouble in Bon Temps, Sam's town, it was worth the risk to himself.

"Perhaps our paths will cross again Shifter."

"You'll forgive me if I hope they don't. Bon Temps is a simple place; best left alone Andre. I do hope you'll relate that to your queen."

"She will have nothing but the truth from me." And with a very small nod of his head the Vampire was gone, hardly having disturbed the air with his rapid egress. Unfortunately though, he had disturbed the fabric of the place, and Sam was certain that nothing was ever going to be the same in Bon Temps.

He locked up the bar and went home, finally allowing himself the time to consider how he felt about everything that had just transpired, a strong drink being the first order of business.


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks to everyone who took the time to leave a review. I am sorry if there was any confusion about Sam's role in the tale. This is meant to stay within cannon, so please be assured that Sookie will still be innocent when she meets Bill two years hence. Sam will be playing his own role of overseer or protector, or however you choose to see him.

Merick

Part 2

Sookie had wondered if her Gran would be awake when she got home, but it was awfully late, well past three when she pulled the yellow hatchback around the back of the old house. The security lights came on, Gran always put them on at night, whether she was up or not, and especially since Sookie had started working at Merlotte's. She never had liked Sookie being out so late, (and mentioned it with a grin and cluck of her tongue on occasion) but she had liked it a great deal when Sookie had gotten the job, because it had made her so happy. Sookie could read her Grandmother's moods without even having to go into her head; in fact Sookie made a point to stay out of her Gran's mind, it was her first real practice at blocking people. Sam had been another good one to practice on. He was very hard to read, sometimes it even seemed as of he was two different people, when she accidentally trespassed, and it gave Sookie a place to start out with as she practiced blocking him out too. It gave her a real sense of confidence. Made her feel as if she could almost be normal.

And now that the Vampires were out she would look positively benign in the eyes of the Bon Temps citizenry. (Benign had been on her word of the day calendar, she made a point to try to use the words she learned from it, in proper context, whenever the opportunities presented themselves.) I mean, truthfully, what was scarier? Someone who might be able to read your mind or someone who could rip out your throat? Sookie hoped that she fell on the positive side of that formula.

She came in the house through the back porch, where the light was best, and was just a little disappointed that her Gran had indeed gone to sleep, part of her had really wanted to get her opinion on the Vampire matter. Of course the rational part of her was glad she hadn't tried to wait up, it was so late after all. Morning coffee would be soon enough to have that conversation; if she could get it in around the phone calls that were likely to start coming in almost as early as the sun itself. Gran certainly had a great network of ladies to chat with. Moving quietly around the familiar bric-a-brac in the kitchen, Sookie set the kettle on, intending to catch it before it started to whistle, feeling like a cup of warm tea just then, to help take the edge off the excitement of the day, because she knew it was going to be hard to sleep. And knowing how long it would take the kettle to boil, after years of experience with it and the old stove, she hurried to her room to change out of her work clothes, and into a sleep shirt. (A shower that late would be too noisy and wake Gran for certain; she could manage one in the morning.)

Catching the kettle as it began to steam Sookie poured a mug out for some herbal tea and nestled herself into old chair in front of the small TV that Gran kept to watch the local news and the occasional movie. Keeping the volume down Sookie scanned for a national news channel, meaning to watch the anchor's scripted reactions to the revelation. As she took a sip of tea she felt her shoulders finally relax and even felt a little smile on her face as she watched the American spokes-Vampire (it sounded funny still) fielding questions masterfully; even Sookie could tell that she had practiced every answer she gave.

They were reviewing this Tru Blood substance again with the woman (Sookie thought her name was Nan, she was a sever looking thing), explaining how it would come in bottles, no different than milk or beer, available at local stores and even bars and restaurants when Sookie suddenly remembered that she had been supposed to call Sam. She hoped he would still be up as she padded to the kitchen as quickly as she dared, taking up the old Bakelite handset and sitting herself on the stool her Gran used when a conversation was particularly compelling.

It rang once, twice and then a very awake sounding Sam picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hi Sam, it's Sookie, sorry to call so late."

"Did you have any problems getting home?" Sookie could hear the anxiety in his voice, far more than she was used to hearing from him: as if he was stressed by something. It made her stomach flop suddenly.

"No, sorry, I just forgot, I've been home almost a half hour now." She wondered if her own hesitance was audible to him.

"Good. I was a little worried Sookie."

"Why would you worry Sam?" She wanted to add 'what aren't you telling me?' but she wanted to stay friends with Sam, and she didn't want to think ill of him.

"Just worried that there might be some folk on the roads who were paying a little less attention than they should tonight."

"I didn't see anyone at all Sam, so don't worry. I'm in for the night, just here in my jammies ready to turn in."

"Good. You just stay in then Sookie, and I will see you tomorrow afternoon."

"Of course Sam. I'll see you then."

She hung up the phone carefully, staring at it, as if it could tell her what Sam wouldn't. She wrinkled her forehead in frustration.

"I wonder what's up with him?" She asked herself as she slid off the stool and went back to get her tea.

Still not tired Sookie thought she would just have a seat out on the porch and listen to the crickets and nighttime sounds until she was finished her drink. The sky was clear and the stars were still out and the human silence was absolutely comforting to Sookie. Closing the screen door carefully, so it wouldn't squeak, she curled her legs under her and leaned back against one of the old rattan patio chairs and just let herself be quiet.

ooOOoo

Hadley had come into the Queen's life only recently, and while Sophie Ann had embraced her (in multiple ways), it could not be said that Andre was a particular fan of hers. Whatever endeared her to the Queen, Andre kept his distance. In his eyes she was a little too desperate, and a little too needy, not that he dared point any of that out to Sophie Ann. She was in love, or at least in lust, and to keep up that affection Hadley had given to telling stories. Mostly they pandered to the Queen, but every once in awhile there was a bit of substance to the words that tumbled out of her mouth when she was afraid she was falling out of favor.

Andre had long wanted the opportunity to explore the background of the woman who was sleeping with his Sophie Ann; the revelation had given him just that. As he had told Sam, Bon Temps had long been on their radar because of the were community at Hot Shot, and the old stories of portals and fairy magic about the place: not that there was much fact that could be researched about the latter. However, Hadley's desperation had dropped a tidbit about a cousin, a cousin who was able to read minds, and that had peaked both his and Sophie Ann's interest. And while his motive might not have been as noble as Sophie Ann's, (although hers wasn't particularly noble either if you really examined it), searching out what this Bon Temps was made up of seemed like a good distraction, and a good opportunity to perhaps discredit the slip of a girl that Andre was certain would do nothing but bring ruin to his Beloved.

Sookie Stackhouse. It hadn't been at all hard to discover her name; he hadn't even needed to glamour the little pet to get it. The Internet and public records were a true boon. Finding her in the employ of the shifter, Sam Merlotte hadn't been much of a surprise either. Though it had been a surprise how much he had seemed to want to warn Andre off. It had been more than just territoriality, which was endemic to the two-natured. No, Sam Merlotte knew a great deal more about Bon Temps and Sookie Stackhouse than he was prepared to let on. It could certainly make him a useful asset (or tool) later on. Tracking the pitiful yellow car back to the house had been simple. And standing at the edge of her woods, watching it, Andre counted himself quite fortunate when the girl actually emerged from the structure and sat herself out on the porch, within easy reach.

Closing his eyes he listened for her heartbeat; quite normal, and stole closer, under the cover of the darkness, and took a deep breath, weeding his way through the scents of the forest and the animals and the chamomile of her tea to find something quite unique, something that brought another smile to his face.

"Oh, you are something special aren't you my dear?"


	3. Chapter 3

Part 3

Not that Andre made much of a point to stay close to Hadley, in fact he tried to stay far away from the girl especially when she was with Sophie Ann, but he had found himself close enough to inhale a scent off of her that had intrigued him. He hadn't mentioned it to Sophie Ann, at least not to that point, partly because he wasn't one hundred percent certain that what he was smelling was in fact a trace of the ancient race he thought it was, and partly because he knew that Sophie Ann couldn't smell it (his sense of smell was his gift), and he had no reason to disclose his suspicions, not when there could be more to gain from it at a later time. And now that Andre knew that Hadley's cousin had the same Fae trace around her, it made the girl even more valuable than a basic mind –reader (not that that skill was particularly basic). There was a brother somewhere around too, and Andre began to think that he had better find this Jason Stackhouse as well, and see if he had been likewise blessed.

The air around the girl was almost sweet with the smell of her blood, spiced with the innocent heartbeat. Andre gambled with moving a little closer, at his preternatural speed so there would be no chance of her spying him. He sat, immobile at the far edge of the porch wall, breathing in the intoxicating scent, fighting with his feral urge to take her. He could hear every breath she took, the sound of her lips as they parted to sip at her tea, and the gentle movement of her throat as she swallowed. His fangs dropped, almost without his consent. He had never desired Hadley, but he found himself desirous of this one, and debated trying to glamour her so that he could taste her. It wasn't sex, that could be had at any turn, with women or men who made themselves easily available. It was the aura of Fae that hung to her, even more so than Hadley. Andre had no breath to hold, but he did clutch his fingers into fists, smelling his own blood as the nails cut into his flesh.

ooOOoo

Sookie brought the mug to her lips again and took a deep drink of the rapidly cooling tea. Some nights in Louisiana stayed as hot as the daytimes with the thick, muggy air hanging around a body like a blanket, but that night wasn't. It was a little cool, a pleasant break from the day, and Sookie was enjoying it, along with the silence in her head, or she had been until she suddenly became aware that everything else had become just as silent. The crickets and creatures of the night had fallen mute in only a few seconds, and Sookie felt a chill crawl up her skin. She stayed very still and threw out her mind, finding absolutely nothing, which still did nothing to calm her. Muscles tensed all over her body, she unfolded her feet and stood, eyes staring out into the blackness. Without even blinking she backed up towards the door, opened it without looking for the handle and fled inside, snapping the bolts shut behind herself. And only when the last of them was slid into place did she allow herself to take a breath.

Sookie had rarely felt that kind of fear; sure there had been fear when people had stared at her as a child, wondering if they were looking at a monster, fear when the family car had gone off the bridge, when she hadn't known what was going to happen, but this was a different sort of thing than she felt back then. That had been panic; there hadn't been time to feel the bone deep uneasiness that surrounded her in the center of her Gran's living room right then. Only when she felt the cold liquid on her fingers did she realize that her hands were shaking and that she had spilled her tea. Taking another few breaths she composed herself enough to get to the kitchen to find a rag to clean up the floor; closing the blinds in the kitchen so that the night couldn't get in to see her. She debated calling Sam again, but quickly dismissed the idea, one, because he was likely asleep, and two, because he would probably think that she was being quite silly; scared of shadows and things that weren't even there. She tried to convince herself that it was just due to the lateness of the night, and the whole revelation thing. The continued silence in her head, and the familiar sounds of the house around her (the refrigerator, the old fan in her Gran's room, the squeak of the floors when she walked from the kitchen to the hallway bathroom) began to push the fear from her mind, letting the fatigue finally settle. Turning off most of the lights, (she left the hallway one on), she went to bed.

ooOOoo

Once Sookie had returned inside Andre understood, with some regret, that his evening of watching her was at an end. There was no point trying to gain entrance to her home. The risk was too great; and Andre wanted to keep some knowledge of her otherworldliness to himself for just a little while longer. There was a good possibility that Sophie Ann would ask him to continue to watch this little telepath; after all he actually had no proof that she was a telepath. If he played his cards correctly he would eventually formally meet the girl, who better, he asked himself, than Sophie Ann's own child, and trusted confidant to make the introductions. He would hold back the information about her Fae blood to ensure it happened he decided.

Allowing himself just a little bit of excitement, Andre left the little house off Hummingbird Lane, in pursuit of some of the other interesting things (and beings) that Bon Temps had to offer.

ooOOoo

Hotshot never really slept, unlike Bon Temps, its more affluent neighbour. It was part of its basic makeup, or perhaps it was better called 'pack instinct'. Calvin Norris made sure it was that way. Someone was always on watch, day and night, over the houses, over the children, over their lifestyle. They'd been in that one place for a very long time, hidden, but now that the vamps had come out, he was more concerned that any oddities would now be explored to a greater degree than before, and not passed off as eccentricities. He had no intention of losing his community. That night, he had taken watch. And he was glad of it when he smelled 'it' coming.

He snarled loudly, knowing the warning would bring some of the others around. He had no doubt of his skill against a Vampire, but numbers counted for something too. He pulled back into human form feeling the presence of his family growing around him.

"Stay where you are!" He growled at the space where he knew 'it' was.

"I mean you no harm." Came the sultry voice as Andre stepped from the shadows to face the panther, yellow eyes still gleaming, muscles tight across arms and legs in the moonlight.

"Your kind are not welcome here Vampire. Be on your way." The words were as tightly coiled as the man. Andre could see the cords rippling beneath his skin, signally the desire to shift, and likely try to rip him to shreds. Andre was not stupid, he knew he could easily snap the neck of one panther, but a dozen, well, he might suffer some harm from that kind of assault, and it certainly would bring unwanted attention, even if only in the supernatural community.

"I am only here to bring you greetings from the Queen of Louisiana." He answered, keeping his voice level.

"Your Queen means nothing to us Vampire. I tell you again to leave." The distinctive rumble of panther voices began to rise in the dark around the men.

"You will have to deal with us now Panther. We are free now, able to move where we want."

"Only at night, and we hunt just as well at night. This is your last warning."

"As you wish Panther." Andre slipped back into the darkness, he'd made his point, he'd never expected to be welcomed by a group of the two-natured, and he wasn't about to play at the charade that he wanted to bring friendship to them. Vampires and Shifters wouldn't ever be friends, not as long as the blood stood between them. But now they were aware, and perhaps just a little frightened that their small world had grown significantly larger in one night. If it kept them off balance then they would be one less group for Sophie Ann to concern herself with. And perhaps the young ones could be used in some way. It was always good to assess your enemies.

He pulled far enough away that he could still smell their animal nature and hear the chorus of hearts, half panther, half human; some thumping with strength others pattering with fear. It was a good mix of foolhardy and submissive, and it made Andre grin. He figured on one more stop before he returned to Sophie Ann and the comfort of her palace.

Calvin could trace the withdrawal of the Vampire by scent. He'd smelled a lot of dead things in his time, a few, quite a few by his own teeth, but Vamps were different. There was this underlying putrification that hung around them, and there was no mistaking it. He hated the idea that the things would be wandering around even more, and that he might have to deal with more 'visitors'. He was going to have to talk to his people, and impress on them the fact that no interactions with vamps were worth it. As long as he was alive Calvin was going to keep his community free of their particular brand of hell.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Much of his night had already been spent between the introducing himself to the shifters and following the fae telepath; Andre had only another hour or so to spend in Bon Temps if he wanted the time to return to New Orleans, and avoid having to go to ground for the day. And Andre wanted as many intriguing tid-bits to offer to Sophie Ann as he could, to ensure her indulgence in his returning to Bon Temps, repeatedly. So he needed to check on the brother, this Jason Stackhouse, and see if he was as interesting and skilled as his sister. His address had been just as easy to find as every other one in Bon Temps and Andre left the panthers of Hotshot behind to their own devices, smirking to himself on how his appearance had likely upset their xenophobic ways. It was good to keep the others off balance, it made them so much easier to manipulate when the time for such things came, as it always did.

The house was set back from the road, as so many of them seemed to be, and Andre appreciated that, there was so much more privacy. He knew he was going to like Bon Temps, for so many reasons. As he approached the one storied building, the scent of a Fae became obvious again, though not as obvious as the overlying odor of sex that hung like a fog about the place. It made him want to gag and he halted his progress down the driveway, for a moment to banish the personal memories that the stink brought back. As he stilled he heard a conversation, not hushed at all, that made him want to grin as he imagined what must have been going on behind the closed doors and barely curtained windows.

"I only said that I had to get up early for work, and that you might be more comfortable if you went home tonight."

"Oh sure Jason, you get the sex you want and then you just kick me out!" The female voice was shrill and accompanied by heels on hardwood.

"That's not what I meant Susan!" That response was accompanied by much heavier footfalls that sounded a little more like a hop-step. Obviously this Jason was trying to get into his pants as he pursued his lover to the door.

"It's Sharon!" Came the now even angrier reply as Andre saw the front door burst open. In an instant he was on the porch before the angry woman, clad in her jean mini-skirt, tank top, completely impractical shoes, and wide, startled eyes. But he silenced her in an instant, capturing her eyes with his, and her shoulders with his hands.

"Shhh." She ordered, and she stopped dead in his grasp. "Sit." He guided her to a patio chair where she fell limply, completely mesmerized, as Jason came through the door in search of her.

"Who the Hell?" He began as he took in the scene. The scent of his otherness brought a new smile to Andre's lips, and he took a deep, deliberate breath, savoring it.

"So delicious." He half moaned.

"What the?" Jason tried to speak, but stopped as Andre's lips split, and his fangs dropped. "Oh, Shit."

Andre's hand darted out to grab hold of Jason's jaw firmly, forcing his mouth closed as Andre teased himself with being so close to Fae blood, feeling it pulse under his fingertips. He silently looked Jason over slowly, the mortal's eyes following his as he did so.

"Are you going to kill me?" Jason choked out very quietly.

"Of course not." Andre whispered as he brushed his lips over Jason's exposed neck, eliciting a shudder. "We're going to be friends." With one exposed fang he scratched at Jason's neck deliberately. Torn capillaries welled blood onto the tanned skin in a slow trickle. The scent pulled at Andre's desires, but he was well past giving in to temptation so readily. He let his tongue dart out to taste the ruby liquid before it clotted. The exquisite flavor was only enhanced by the heartbeat of fear that accompanied it.

"Not as strong as your Sister's" Andre mused, knowing that Jason's scent, while the same as Sookie's, was not as strong. But he didn't waste time just then musing why that might be. He let the remaining taste swirl over his tongue.

"What have you done to my sister?"

"Shhh Jason. No more words unless I ask you a question." Jason was struck mute, and could do nothing as Andre brought his mouth back down to his neck, and that time, bit properly.

The blood flowed and Andre felt the dizziness of the fairy content hit his system. He swayed with an unaccustomed sense of glee. Hadley's blood might taste delicious to the queen, though she had no idea why, and he found the scent of it less enticing, polluted by her past. This blood though was much more pure, and it only made Andre hunger for Sookie's blood even more. But despite the craving he felt, he stopped after only a few good mouthfuls. It wouldn't do to leave an exsanguinated body behind on the very night the Vampires had revealed themselves. Besides, he imagined many opportunities for himself to taste both Jason and his sister as he earned the confidence of the woman with his own charms. Pulling away, and licking his lips to take in every drop, he pierced his own finger and painted the wounds with his blood, watching them heal away to nothing in seconds, leaving no trace of himself.

"Now Jason. Listen to me. You will remember nothing of what happened here tonight." Andre kept his voice very even, holding Jason's eyes on him.

"Uh huh."

"You came out here to follow Sharon, who was on her way home. You talked for a moment on the porch, and then you went back into the house to sleep. Nothing else."

"Nothing else." Jason parroted back.

"Now go little fairy boy. We'll see each other again soon."

"Okay." Jason walked, like a zombie, back into the house.

"Now Sharon," Andre turned back to the silent woman, "you and Jason had sex." He wrinkled his nose just at the thought of it. "And then you decided to go home. You won't remember anything of me at all. Though," Andre paused with a smirk, "you will have a dream about Vampires, and how exciting it will be to offer your blood to them. Now be on your way girl."

In the same trance-like manner as Jason, she stood from the old chair and proceeded off the porch and into her truck, not looking back as she pulled away. Andre was left alone on the little porch, still feeling the glee of the fairy blood in his system. But he did not let it affect his judgment. He had to return to Sophie Ann, and there was just enough time to do it. So with the calculating grin on his face Andre began to run, confident of his renewed favor in Sophie Ann's eyes, and of his new mission to cultivate the people of Bon Temps.


	5. Chapter 5

Thanks for everyone's patience in waiting for this chapter. RL has been very busy of late, so I hope you think it was worth it. Andre will sort out his plans, and we'll see what he has in mind for Sookie.

Merick

Chapter 5

The journey back had been rapid, energized by all the plans he had begun to make for himself. Andre had noticed little fatigue, even though he had run practically the entire distance; he almost dared to identify the feeling as excitement. His arrival back in New Orleans, at Sophie Ann's palace, came without fanfare, (not that he had expected it), and with only a little time before the sunrise. Most of the Vampire floors of the building were quiet, while the human floors were just waking up. Andre keyed in his personal pass-code once in the elevator and ascended to his floor. Sophie Ann had never given up the idea that she could live above ground, while Andre knew well enough that it was much safer in underground quarters. But he followed her and her desires with little question. His room was an inner one without windows, and close to hers, so close that he had to pass by her door on his way to his own. He knew she was in there, he could feel her presence; that was part of her gift, as the sense of smell was his. Raw emotions might surface from time to time between them, but his love for her, and desire to be near her, in her good graces, never faded. He knew enough not to bother her, she was just as aware of him as he, her, and she had not come to greet him. Though that omission hurt, he swallowed the loneliness. She had her indulgences, and he gave her those as well, without question.

Safely behind the reinforced door of his own suite, Andre pushed all thoughts of Sophie Ann's pursuits from his mind. He walked past his desk, neatly organized with his papers and pens; he still favored proper correspondence, and had never given up wax seals, (a wax he mixed with his own blood to ensure his recipients knew of its complete authenticity) and into his bedchamber. He loosened the tie he was wearing, and shrugged out of his jacket, setting it over the mahogany valet so it didn't crease. He had a taste for fine things just as Sophie Ann did. Fine things like expensive suits, and real blood; a bottle of Royalty Blended was waiting for him, as it always was, but the taste of Fairy blood, however diluted from Jason Stackhouse was still on his palate, so he left the bottle corked. He turned to the wardrobe mirror and examined his reflection in it.

He had been young when Sophie Ann had found him, (at least young in body); his spirit had been aged far beyond those physical years. She had understood. His skin was pale, as was the skin of everyone his age; as a Vampire that was. Long fingers and thin hands undid the buttons on his shirt as he watched their progress in the mirror. His chest, as he revealed it, was smooth, with the definitions of the musculature across it in a way that had excited Sophie Ann, in a loving, comforting way when she had first laid eyes on him; those and his eyes, back then, wide eyed and frightened so often, not the hard gaze he had developed as his powers had developed. His shoulders and back were strong, they always had been. He slipped off the shirt. His master had used him for a great many labors, not just those of pleasures. He had no marks or scars, it was one thing his master had insisted on, perfect, pure skin, it brought more money, the virgin, night after night. He would never appreciate the man for that, he would always hate him, but the perfect skin was an asset.

He knew exactly what he was going to do to win Sookie Stackhouse over to him. He would befriend her, he would sway her, and he would be absolutely honest with her, about how much he desired her company. If she looked into his head she would see that purity, because it wasn't about sex, though he would offer that as well. He had seen enough men present themselves to Sophie Ann. He saw what pledges turned her head, and which did not. And he had seen the girl, seen that she returned to a quiet home, had seen that no man waited for her. Hadley's stories had described a lonely, misunderstood child, feared for the glimpses of power, shunned for the same. It would be an easy task. He would offer her friendship, from the kindred spirit of a lost childhood, from the pain he knew. He looked at himself in the mirror and let his hardened jaw sink, willing his eyes and brow to relax, imparting softness to his face, which painted him as the innocent youth once again. He had long since learned to clear his mind, to keep some things from Sophie Ann, that was how he knew that it would be no matter to hide the truth of the Stackhouse lineage, at least for a time. Sookie would find nothing amiss if she ventured into his thoughts.

She would find a shoulder to lean on, a kind ear to listen to her without judging her. She would find quiet in his mind. He would bring her flowers, and smile for her, and ask after her wellbeing. He would defend her against everyone who would threaten her. It was the best way. Hands on his waistband he let his trousers drop to the floor and kicked them to the side. He would be her hero before anything else, and she would come to him, his guidance to that end so subtle that she would never suspect it was anything but her own desires at work. He could satisfy her physically; his manhood was more than sufficient for that task, and not of a size that would frighten or harm her. He let himself feel the fairy blood again and the joy that came with the plans he was making. His body began to respond, which pleased him.

The discarded pants were hung carefully for the servants to attend to and Andre closed off the lights in the room and slipped into his bed, the soft linens brushing against most sensitive places, he held the feeling in his thoughts as the day took him.

ooOOoo

The sun was warm spilling in Sookie's drapes, despite her having drawn the shades the previous night. Everything was a little threadbare and thin in her Gran's house, everything but the feeling of being home. For the first few glorious moments of being pulled from sleep, the memories of the previous night were still banished. But as her brain woke up, they came back, the feelings of disquiet and discomfort and of being watched as she had sat on the porch. She shuddered, listening to her own breathing for a few moments in the quiet bedroom, until she heard the sound of her Gran, puttering in the kitchen. The scent of coffee perking on the stove was the next familiar thing that helped to put the feelings of the night before in their place. Her robe, (also a little threadbare) felt good over her shoulders, and she checked her hair and face over as she quickly brushed her teeth and went to join her Gran.

"Well Sookie darling, good morning."

"Morning Gran." She sat herself down at the table as her grandmother set a mug in front of her.

"Bacon and eggs?"

"Umm, sure, that would be nice." Sookie's Gran seemed very bright and chipper by her estimation, and Sookie began to wonder if she had watched the news the night previous or not. The question was quickly answered.

"So, what do you think of this whole Vampire thing Sookie?" It seemed that Gran had been holding it back, but her voice was very excited.

"It was quite the shock around Merlotte's last night I can you. But Sam was so cool about it all. People were really nervous, so he stayed open extra late so folks could talk, and calm their nerves and all."

"That Sam Merlotte certainly is a nice man." Gran turned her back to Sookie as she plated the fried eggs and sizzling bacon. With a happy thud it was set before her. "Did folks seem very frightened Sookie?"

"Well some did, the older ones, and the ones who hadn't drunk so much." Sookie giggled as she forked up a crispy bit of egg white; perfect as always, but that came from frying with real lard, as her Gran always did.

"I suppose the young ones weren't nearly so sensible?" Gran sat down across from Sookie, and wrapped her hands around her coffee mug, lacing her fingers together.

"Not nearly. Some got all high and mighty and started mumbling about going hunting, others seemed a little more intrigued by the idea than they rightly should have been." Of course Sookie was referring to the ladies who got notions in their heads about having sex with a Vampire, but she wasn't about to say that out loud to her Gran. "What do you think about it Gran?"

"Well, when you've lived as long as I have Sookie, there aren't many things that surprise you anymore. But this one was pretty close. I wonder if I'll ever get to meet one?"

"I can't imagine that a Vampire would ever come to Bon Temps, what do we have out here that would interest them?"

"Well we do have a lot of history out here." Gran was a member of the Descendants of the Glorious Dead, they got together monthly and talked about the history of Bon Temps in the Civil War. "We had a number of boys who went out to fight and never came home, who knows Sookie. Maybe?" She shrugged her shoulders.

"I guess anything is possible Gran."

"So it would seem."

"I wonder what other creatures from the Fairytales might be real too?" Sookie mused as she continued to eat. She thought she might have seen her Gran start just a bit at that question, but just as quickly she was up, grabbing at the frying pan.

"You never know Sookie. Here, you need more bacon." Another generous forkful was added to Sookie's already full plate. "Are you working today?"

"Another dinner shift."

"You know, Jason didn't stop by this morning for breakfast," (as he almost always did), "So I bet he's on an early shift. I'll call him later and make sure he comes to follow you home, just in case."

"Thanks Gran." Sookie actually did feel a little better about that idea, considering the uneasy feeling she'd had being alone on the porch the previous evening. She looked out the kitchen windows to see the sunlight streaming in. It was warm, and bright, and it made some of the darkness start to fade finally. Sookie thought, as she finished her coffee, that maybe she'd go to the library and exchange some of her books (romance novels all of them), and maybe spend a little time in the sun, working on the tan like Sam liked so much (when she chanced to accidentally hear things from him). It could be a completely normal day. She didn't have to think about Vampires and the heebie jeebies that she could talk herself into. There was never going to be a Vampire in Bon Temps anyways, despite what her Gran seemed to think.

As she was clearing her dishes the phone rang, and when her Gran answered it Sookie knew that she was going to be busy for quite some time. The conversation began with Vampires, and Sookie knew it was going to circle around them for as long as the ladies could manage. It seemed like a good opportunity to tidy up her plate, have a shower, and do some completely normal Bon Temps kind of things. She smiled at her Gran, who smiled back, and headed off.


	6. Chapter 6

A little tease before Andre returns to Bon Temps. Thank you to everyone who has picked up this little Fic and offered their reviews and suggestions. I am in your debt.

Merick

Chapter 6

"Andre!" Sophie Ann swept into his room. She didn't knock, she never did. But Andre had known she was coming even before her grand entrance. He looked up with an indulgent smile from the papers he had been working on; she loved to see that smile, and he knew it. Standing, he took the embrace she offered him, along with the kiss. She loved him, and he loved her, and being in her presence again made him feel complete; as intense as the emptiness that being away from her left in his insides. "It is so good to have you home." It had only been a night, but Sophie Ann did tend towards the dramatic; and it was nothing for him to coddle her in that way.

"It is good to be home." He answered as they still held each other. Her scent was all a part of his connection to her, and he deliberately inhaled as he ran his nose through the strands of her blond hair.

"And your visit to Bon Temps? Were you able to find this cousin of Hadley's?" She whispered, enjoying the touches he gave her.

"Her, and much more." He whispered back. With a graceful step backwards Sophie Ann pulled away from him, still smiling.

"You must tell me all about it then." And she sat herself down on his settee, arranging her skirts around her, looking at him with great expectations.

"I had an opportunity to remind the shifters there of your continued presence in this State." He began.

"Excellent. I expect the panthers will continue to keep to themselves after your visit?"

"I expect as much as well. They may think themselves a pack, but they hide out of fear more than anything else. It is easy to manipulate such things." They shared a smile knowing very well what threats were worth; when they weren't idle. And nothing that Andre ever spoke in warning was idle.

"But what of Hadley's cousin, were you able to find her?" Sophie Ann's excitement was obvious.

"I was, but it was quite late when I did. Apparently her workplace kept her well into the night, it would seem that our announcement caused concern amongst the populace of her little town."

"I suppose that was to be expected as well." Sophie Ann picked at a crease in her skirt, obviously disappointed.

"It was quite obvious though," Andre offered, to placate her, "That there was something very different about her, something different about the whole place." He hoped those words were enough to keep her interest, but not so exciting that she would rush off herself. "One of the shifters warned me about it in a not so subtle way."

"Interesting."

"Indeed. She also has a brother who bears further investigation, and I have a plan worked out for how I can test Hadley's claims of this girl, and how I can bring her into our fold." He was baiting the hook for his maker.

"So you will be needing to spend more time in Bon Temps then?"

"I will, I think it is important that I establish a trusting relationship with the girl."

Sophie Ann laughed, "So you intend to seduce her?"

"In a manner of speaking. I want her to come to me willingly. Humans are so much more useful when they are in control of their own faculties, as opposed to being glamoured."

"Very true." Sophie Ann continued to play with her skirt, but Andre knew that she was listening intently. "So when will you be returning?"

"As soon as you give me leave. I think it prudent to visit the Sherriff of Area Five first, to warn him off letting anyone else get in the way of our plans for Bon Temps."

"An excellent idea, send our regards to Sherriff Northman. You can also check on this business venture of his while you are there."

"The Club? Yes, I will." Northman had presented his ideas well in advance of The Revelation, as a Sherriff, he had been party to the idea for years, and his advice had been sought by the Queen as she and her fellow regents around the globe had set things in motion.

"Could you do one more thing for me, my darling?"

"Of course."

"Whatever this skill might be, I would like to trace it in this family. I know it would be a small matter for you to put together a family tree for these Stackhouses. It would give us many paths to follow if this telepathy is a family trait."

"An excellent idea. I will compile it as I do my research in Bon Temps, and bring it back to you."

"Hopefully with the girl as well." Sophie Ann added.

"Yes indeed." Andre had already thought of the family tree, in fact he had been writing some letters of inquiry before Sophie Ann had arrived, looking for birth records. The Queen had many researchers amongst her other subjects, and he had intended to set them to part of the task while he did the physical research.

"Well, I will leave you to your work then darling." And like that Sophie Ann was gone, distracted by another desire, and Andre was able to finish his missives and pack a few things for his time in Bon Temps. He expected that his plan might take a few weeks, and not that he needed a great deal in terms of personal items, there were things that he felt would be useful for the person he would present to Sookie Stackhouse.

ooOOoo

It could have been any strip mall in any plaza. In fact, but for the Vampire perched on top of a ladder, hand painting the black awning over the door, it could have been an auto parts store or plumbing supply outlet. But this was Eric Northman's club, or at least the genesis of it. Andre approached, duffle over his shoulder, making a bit of noise (which he didn't have to do), to get the attention of the person on the ladder.

"I'm sorry, we aren't open yet." Came the voice from its perch. The man didn't even take his eyes off his work to turn and see whom he was addressing. Obviously a young one, Andre thought to himself, not at all aware of who he was, or even how old.

"I'm here to speak with the Sherriff." Andre told the back of the man, who suddenly stiffened, hearing the cadence of the words, and knowing the sense of them. He spun, sloshing the paint in his tray around, a nervous look clouding his features.

"I'm very sorry sir, he's just inside." The painter began to scrabble down the ladder until Andre held up a pale hand.

"Don't worry, I'll find my way." Andre needed no announcement of his arrival by this lacky. Eric, also an elder Vampire, would certainly have sensed the presence of someone as old as himself by now. This young one was of no consequence. Andre walked directly under the ladder and pulled on the polished handle of the left side door of the doubled entrance.

The scant hallway leading into the expanse of the club was cluttered with brass poles strung with red velvet cords, in anticipation of the grand opening crowds. Just beyond it, faint light filtered through the black curtains and Andre advanced, brushing them aside. He was greeted by the sight of three vampires sitting around the bar; two in front of it, who turned immediately, and the one behind, whose position never changed. The front male of the group had the ruddy complexion and squared features of a Native American, and must have been LongShadow, one of the Sherriff's partners in the club. The female, long blond tresses casually pinned up around her face, suit in perfect order, pasted on smile was the Sherriff's progeny, Pamela Ravenscroft.

"Welcome." Her voice was as strained as her smile, and Andre enjoyed that. Only then did the Sherriff look up.

Everything about the man betrayed his heritage. He was at least six foot four, his blond hair hanging long to his shoulders, only removed from his mortal time by the absence of braids in it. His eyes were ice blue, like the fjords he had seen from his birth. His face betrayed nothing, but took in everything. Even a thousand years removed from the Great Hall of his Father he was a Viking. And he was possibly the biggest threat to Sophie Ann in the entire Queendom; though he chose not to show those cards he had in his hand. But the Great Revelation had put so many new things in play, and Andre knew that he would need to keep an eye on Northman as well, and a telepath would certainly make that a great deal easier.

"Andre." Came the measure, calculated voice, "It is a pleasure to see you again. What brings you to Shreveport?"

ooOOoo

The two vampires settled into Eric's office, which, unlike the rest of the club, was not cluttered with boxes and turned over furniture. Pam had brought then both bottles of True Blood and then disappeared just as silently as she had arrived, her eyes questioning her maker, but her throat remaining mute. She understood her place, this was a matter for her Sherriff, and he would pass on any pertinent information from the conversation, as he saw fit. At least this club, meant for humans, had not become some sort of heinous democracy just yet.

"The club is coming along well Sherriff." Andre took a sip of the synthetic blood, playing the part of the mainstreaming Vampire, even though it was not to his liking, (not as much as the Stackhouse blood he had tasted, and that he planned on tasting).

"It is. We will be ready for the grand opening next Friday night. Will the Queen be attending?"

"Her schedule has become rather full in the last day." Andre had been given a copy of the itinerary on his waking, the calls had begun to come in even before the sunrise, wanting to block out the time of a powerful Vampire for all manner of interviews and meetings with local government. They, of course, had not released a great deal of information about the Vampire hierarchy, so no one really knew that Sophie Ann was a Queen, only that she held a position of respect amongst the populace. "I don't know that she will have the time, but you could most certainly send a formal invitation to her office."

"I cannot send one with you?" It was a question but the face betrayed no confusion at having to ask it. Northman was a cagey one.

"I have been tasked with a matter that will keep me away from the Queen for several weeks. That is part of the reason I have come to see you this evening Sherriff."

"Do tell?"

"There is a small town in your area Sherriff, called Bon Temps. The Queen has business there, which I am attending to. We would ask that you keep clear of it, and instruct your local vampires to do the same. It would be, unfortunate, if someone were to interfere in that business." Andre had debated for an hour or so, about how to phrase things with the Sherriff, to get his point across, without the man sending his own spies to Bon Temps. To say nothing would have opened the door for the inquisitive, to say something offered a chance that the necessary solitude would be respected. What had finalized his choice of words was the knowledge of Eric Northman's nature. He was at heart, devoted to self-preservation. And a small town, at the fringes of his urban environment, could, and would be put lower down on his list of priorities with the opening of the club. It was a fortunate coincidence that Eric's own business matters could trump his curiosity. And, if a Vampire did happen to try to suss out his business, a swift death would send an appropriate warning to any others. Eric would certainly not be venturing there himself, and the Sherriff's warnings would be more than enough to keep others away.

"Of course. I will ensure that you remain unmolested as you do the Queen's work. And if there is anything else I can assist you with, I hope you will not hesitate to ask. Even though I am quite busy with this matter of the club I am at the Queen's service. I will give you the contact information for my day man, Bobby. Should I be unavailable for any reason, I find him quite skilled and dedicated in his own tasks."

"Your willingness to help is a testament to your loyalty Sherriff. The Queen will be most pleased to hear of it. It is likely that I will need a secure place to go to ground on some days, and I may need other services that your man can discretely provide."

"You will not be displeased with Bobby's efficiency or his discretion."

Political niceties aside for both men they finished their drinks in relative silence with Eric briefly outlining the plans for the Club, which was to be called Fangtasia, and then Andre took his leave. The Sherriff was not going to be an ally, but neither was he going to be an adversary, at least not in the matter of Sookie Stackhouse. And that confidence was enough for Andre. He intended to be in Bon Temps, and outside the old house on Hummingbird Lane before the girl returned home from her employment that night. And he set himself to running.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

He had heard her car on the pavement long before she actually turned into the long, graveled drive off Hummingbird Road. He'd set himself by the old mailbox to wait for her, after assuring himself, with a quick reconnoiter of the house, that she had not already arrived. His intention had been to catch her a little farther away from it, the only variable being that he had not known her work and social schedule in advance. Fortunately, his wait had been short, and as she slowed her car, he stood, making himself look as non-threatening as possible; dropping his shoulders, tucking his hands into his jean pockets, relaxing his jaw and curling up one side of his mouth into a smile that he hoped looked innocent. As he had expected, she stopped her faded hatchback, and rolled down her window to inquire about him. The scent of her otherness surrounded him and he fought the euphoria it brought with it.

"Hello?" She seemed hesitant, but that was to be expected, she was probably still a little nervous about driving alone in the dark, what with the Vampires out and about now. Finding a stranger by her mailbox was certainly not the norm in Bon Temps.

"Good Evening Miss. Thank you for stopping." He greeted her politely.

"Can I help you?" She was wary but not overly so just then.

"Are you the owner of this property here?"

She hesitated. He smiled even more broadly.

"Yes." Her voice lifted up, questioning him even with an answer.

"I was hoping, if it isn't an imposition, that you might be able to see your way into letting me hunt in your woods this evening?"

"Hunt? At night?" Her brows knitted together a bit.

"I promise Miss, just some small game, a rabbit or two, perhaps a fox?"

"You aren't from around here, I don't recognize you."

"I'm not Miss, just passing through, though I suppose I don't really know where my destination is just at the moment."

"Why didn't you just go into town, I'm sure you could have stopped by one of the churches and found a decent dinner, probably even a bed for the night?"

"I don't think they have what I need to eat Miss." He curled his shoulders up around his ears a little, a gesture he had practiced in front of the mirror, designed to make himself look meek.

"What is it you eat?"

"I need blood Miss." He kept his voice very quiet, working on the shy, lost persona that he hoped would intrigue the girl.

"Blood?" She pulled back for a moment.

"I'd buy the bottled stuff Miss, I just don't have any money."

"Blood?" She repeated, her voice just a little more incredulous.

"I'm a Vampire Miss." Her reaction then was not at all what he'd expected. She began to laugh.

"You're a Vampire? Really? Now I know this is a joke, did my brother put you up to this? Is this why he didn't come out to Merlotte's tonight to drive me home?" She hitched herself partway through the window and yelled out. "Jason! I know you're out there, I'm on to you!" The movement of her body, and its new proximity was enchanting. He needed to pause for a moment to refocus.

"Truly Miss, I am a Vampire."

"Oh yeah, what, you from the high school here? Come on Jason! Enough is enough!" She hollered.

"Miss?" He tried again to get her attention, and redirect it to himself.

She looked right at him, shaking her head, and staring at him very intently, (which Andre found a little unnerving). That was until he smiled very wide, and dropped his fangs, and then she was quite quiet, dropping back into the driver's seat with a hard thud.

"Oh Hell." She whispered, and seemed to freeze in her seat.

"I promise I won't hurt you Miss."

"What do you want?" Her eyes were as wide as his just then, but not by design. Andre recognized the momentary panic and fear, and normally it was something he relished seeing, but not just then.

"I just wanted to ask your permission to hunt in your woods Miss, and perhaps to go to ground there for the day?" He kept his mind solidly on the script he had practiced.

"Go to what?" He could hear the short breaths that were rising in her throat as she spoke. He tried to make his answers as benign as possible.

"I need a safe place to sleep during the day, I hoped to find one in your woods."

"Why are you even asking me about it?"

"Because it's the polite thing to do, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah, I suppose so." That answer had seemed to disarm her, she had obviously been expecting that Vampires would be brash and rude, and Andre knew that a great many (just like breathers) definitely were.

"I promise that I won't come near the house, and I won't harm you or your family."

"You're really a Vampire, those aren't fake?" Those smooth brows wrinkled again as she continued to stare at him.

"Really a Vampire Miss. Sorry to have startled you. Perhaps I should just move on?" Andre reached down to pick up the duffle bag he'd left at his feet and made to sling it over his left shoulder. He really had no intention of leaving, and would have given her a little nudge with his glamour had it been required, but he truly wanted to do this without that power, just to prove his skill to himself.

"No, it's okay. Sorry, I just never expected to see a Vampire in Bon Temps. I guess it's alright if you need to camp out for the night." Her facial features finally began to soften.

"That's very generous of you Miss. I do appreciate it. I won't be any trouble."

"We do have a cat that wanders around though, I'd be very upset if anything happened to her you understand."

"Yes Miss, no cats, I promise. I'll even see if I can gather up some firewood from the deadfall for you if you like? To pay for my keep? I can leave it by the driveway."

"It'd be easier if you brought it up by the porch, then I wouldn't have to haul it so far."

"By the porch then Miss." Andre skillfully kept a lid on the glee that was welling up in his chest. With only a minor stumble, things were proceeding just as well as he had envisioned they would.

"What's your name?" She asked.

"Andre."

"Well, um, good to meet you Andre, I'm Sookie."

"It is my honor to make your acquaintance Miss Sookie." And he bowed just slightly to her, which elicited another giggle.

"Well, you have yourself a good night then Andre." She made to put the car back into drive and continue to the house.

"And you as well Miss."

The first step in his plan was complete. He watched her pull away from him, knowing her eyes were flitting between the view in her rearview, and the house that lay before her. He waved casually and made as if he was heading towards the tree line, reaching it and disappearing within before she was out of the car. He could still see her, but knew that she couldn't see him from her vantage point on the porch, despite her obvious attempts to do so. He was completely still until she finally went into the house. And then he moved in closer, to listen in on what she had to say to the other occupant.

"Hi Gran." He heard the soft thud of a bag being dropped on a counter; her purse most likely. "You'll never believe,"

"Where's Jason?" The voice of an older woman interrupted Sookie's sentence.

"I don't know, he didn't show up."

"What? He was supposed to come follow you home, and make sure you were safe." That voice sounded quite annoyed by Andre's reckoning.

"I made it fine Gran, and you won't believe what happened."

As Andre listened, Sookie's enthusiasm was again cut off by the other woman.

"I'm going to call him right now and find out what happened."

"Gran. It's okay."

"It most certainly is not Sookie. What if you'd run into one of those Vampires?"

"But I did Gran, that's just it."

The sound of a bakelite telephone receiver hitting a linoleum floor gave Andre a mental picture of what was going on in the house.

"You met a Vampire Sookie?" This Grandmother's attention had finally been garnered.

"I did, he's actually out in the woods right now."

"Oh goodness Sookie." Andre could picture a withered hand covering a likewise wrinkled mouth.

"It's okay Gran, he was nice, and polite, asked if he could catch a rabbit or two for his dinner."

"Oh Sookie, I don't know if I like this."

"Well where else was he supposed to go? At least he asked permission? That says something about his character doesn't it?"

"I suppose it might."

"He's not going to be coming up to the house anyways, except to deliver some firewood, he promised."

"He's gathering firewood as well?"

"He said it was to pay for our hospitality."

"Well that is polite. But all the same I want you to stay in the house tonight. And I'm going to call Jason and give him a piece of my mind."

The phone was retrieved; Andre could hear the rotary dialing commence. He wasn't all that concerned with hearing Jason receive a dressing down from his grandmother, assuming of course she could get a hold of him. Andre's brief glimpse into Jason's lifestyle told him a great deal about his reliability and his distractibility.

He made his way back to the woods, and quickly gathered up a good-sized pile of firewood, nothing overly huge, he didn't want to tip his strength to the ladies. He delivered it to the front porch, then gathered up his bag, pulled out his cellphone and rang up Eric's man Bobby, to arrange for a proper bed for the day.


	8. Chapter 8

Sorry about the delay in getting this posted, I took on a short tale to offer some support to a friend who was having a rough go of it.

Lots more Andre and Sookie to come though. I hope you enjoy this.

Chapter 8

Bobby Burnham was as talented as Northman had made him out to be.

Andre had not rushed to return to Shreveport; in fact he had taken some time to wander around the woods. He had no real intention of draining an animal, but wanted to familiarize himself with the layout, so he could bring up certain copses or sites with Sookie, should she ask. Besides that though, something in the woods compelled him to circle a certain area, poking at his brain as if he should be able to see something that he could not. In his peripheral vision he imagined that there were heat eddies, but every time he whirled around to see their source more clearly, even at his Vampire speed, they were gone, and he began to feel the distinct ire of being taunted by something unseen. But that frustration was mixed with the craving of hunger, more powerful than he could recall feeling in the last several centuries.

By the time he reached Shreveport he actually felt grateful for being away from the woods, and grateful for the raven-haired beauty that Bobby had arranged for him. Suitably glamoured she performed her duties admirably, and left him, while not completely satisfied, at least satiated, and prepared to dream of the blond fairy girl he had left behind in Bon Temps. As he sank into the silk sheets and soft darkness he let her scent, and the memories of her body wash over him until he was claimed by the day.

ooOOoo

The apartment that Burnham had arranged for him was subterranean, as Andre preferred. No natural lights or windows to worry about, a comfortable bed, hot water and a solid door. It was in the basement of a four story condominium building, one he imagined was likely owned by Sheriff Northman, he knew the man to have diversified interests, and not to be the type of Vampire to invite others to stay in his home, which was just fine with Andre. The darkness of the place was comforting, and Andre moved about without turning on any of the electric lights. It let him use his other senses and it left him free to concentrate on Sookie, and the next few steps of his plan to ensnare her. He showered, dressed, and left a message for Bobby that the room was now empty and ready to be cleaned. He proceeded back to Bon Temps on foot, taking a snack along the way, which again, was not satisfying. His body was preoccupied with the thought of tasting Sookie's fairy blood, as much as he pushed the idea from his mind so that she could not pull it from him.

The twilight had only recently faded when Andre approached the edge of the Stackhouse woods, from the direction closest to the stream that ran at one periphery. He gathered up another small armful of wood and walked just past the trees, to scan the veranda. The wood was an excuse, if Sookie, or the grandmother were outside. He felt an unbidden smile curl itself over his lips as he spotted his prey, dressed in a yellow sundress, nothing fancy, (unlike the wardrobe that Sophie Anne chose for herself,) looking out towards the trees. She scanned slowly, turning her face until she finally set eyes on him, and a similar smile brought a glow to her lips. She raised a small hand in a shy greeting. He took that as his cue to approach.

"Good evening Miss Sookie." He set the wood atop the pile he had amassed the night before.

"Hello Andre. I'm happy to see you again. Thank you for the wood."

"You're very welcome. Anything I can do to help you."

"You're very kind Andre." He loved that she giggled a little as she spoke, a nervous sort of twitter that told him a great many things about how she had spent her day, thinking of the excitement a Vampire in her woods was going to bring to her ordinary life. "Did you have a good sleep?"

"I did." It was not a lie; the bed Bobby had provided was very comfortable. "Your woods were very peaceful." Also not a lie. Small animals tended to run at the approach of a Vampire, predators especially, as they sensed the apex master. So the woods had been quiet.

"I'm glad." She was swaying a little on the porch, her hands knit behind her back in an innocent sort of way.

"Miss Sookie?" He played his first card for the evening.

"Yes Andre?"

"Would you mind if I stayed on a few more days? I still haven't sorted out where I want to go yet, and, well, things were so nice?" He shrugged his shoulders and smiled, looking as innocent as he could. Her beaming smile gave him his answer.

"Well that would be just fine Andre." She seemed absolutely gleeful. He held his emotions in check. "No one is going to bother you. Gran and I talked about you last night and we figured it would be better if we didn't tell anyone about you, so no one would come around trying to find you."

It was a bonus Andre had not expected. He smiled at her with a semi-honest gratitude, it would be much better if he didn't have to glamour too many of the citizens of Bon Temps, or deal with the panthers. Humans became so disturbed when they thought they saw large animals wandering about, there were so many accidental shootings.

"Thank you. You and your Grandmother are very kind."

"Well, she's pretty sensible my Gran, and the folks around here, well, not all of them are quite as enlightened. We'd have a forest full of rednecks and their pickup trucks, and my driveway has enough ruts in it already." She gestured out to the expanse of gravel, which was pitted here and there. "My brother is supposed to get his crew over to level it again one of these days, but he gets, distracted." She pursed her lips with a heavy sigh.

"I would love to hear about your family."

"Well, their ain't many of us left, so it wouldn't be a long story. But if you're up for listening?" She stepped away from the rail of the veranda and over to a worn lounge set, that Andre figured might once have been a vibrant shade of cherry wood, but was now a washed out brown and worn grey on its seats, that spoke to its age and use. "Would you like to come up and have a seat?"

"Thank you again." And Andre mounted the steps at human speed, more slowly in fact because his senses were being overwhelmed by the scent that surrounded Sookie. He was unable to hide the slow breaths he took as he drew near to her; it was beyond his control not to let the pure joy of it wrap him. He took a seat carefully, choosing one upwind of her so that he would not be further distracted. Because he wanted to hear every word she would give him.

"I have one brother, Jason." She began. "He's older than me, by a couple of years, but maybe not so much in maturity." She giggled again, and Andre found the sound very pleasing.

"Tell me about him?"

"He works for the Parish, on a maintenance crew, roadwork and tree clearing and stuff like that mostly. I guess he's sort of a foreman, but only 'cause other people seem to follow him. It's been that way since grade school, men and women."

"Is he happy?"

"I suppose he is. He has simple needs, that's probably the best way to be."

"And what about you? Are you happy Miss Sookie?"

"I guess my needs are pretty simple too. I have a good job; I work at a bar called Merlotte's. My boss is nice."

"But?" Her hesitance was obvious.

"Jason does have a lot of company, and a lot of friends. Not that I really want the type of company he has, mostly. But sometimes it's lonely, just me and Gran out here."

"You live with her?"

"My Gran raised us both after our parents died."

That bit of news bothered Andre: if Sookie's parents were dead there were significantly fewer possible fairies and telepaths out there to co-opt. Her brother certainly didn't have her gift, and neither did Hadley, so he still had minimal clues as to which side of the family the fairy gene had come from. Obviously Sookie's father and Hadley's mother had been part of the descendants, but whether it progressed up the line through her Grandmother or Grandfather, was yet to be established.

"I am sorry to hear that. I lost my parents at a young age as well. Though I did not have the fortune to have someone like your Grandmother to step up and care for me."

"Gran did really well by us." As she spoke it was obvious to Andre that she was remembering a great many things. And he found that he hoped she would reveal them to him, bit by bit. He leaned in towards her, to demonstrate his interest.

"So it's just you three?"

"Well, my Aunt Linda passed away quite awhile ago, cancer. Her daughter, my cousin Hadley, we don't know where she ended up. She used to call, ask Gran for money, but the calls just stopped a number of years ago, I can't even remember how long. I hate to think of what became of her, but she was such a tormented soul when she left us. Other than that, I have an Uncle Bartlett, my Gran's brother, but we don't see him anymore, he's, estranged?"

"That's the correct word." Andre encouraged her.

"I'm sorry, I read a lot and I use my word of the day calendar to learn new words, but I didn't have an easy time of it in school."

"I can tell that you aren't dumb Miss Sookie. Just maybe a little sad?"

Sookie gave herself a little shake, and straightened up shoulders that had begun to droop.

"I shouldn't dwell on such things anyways. I'm really not unhappy. As I said, I have a great job; I have my Gran, and this beautiful house. And hey, now I have a Vampire friend living in my woods. Even if I can't tell anyone about you."

"You do have a friend in me."

"Then will you just call me Sookie?"

"I would be honored, Sookie."

They sat and stared at each other in silence for a moment. Andre listened for her heartbeat, and tried to project some kind of comfort towards her, wondering if her gaze on him meant that she was trying to read his mind.

"Sookie honey? Are you still out there?"

A porch door groaned with a metallic squeal as it was opened from the inside of the house, and Sookie shot to her feet.

"Gran?"

Andre also stood as the lady rounded the edge of the matte aluminum doorframe. She was small, smaller than Sookie, with her long white hair drawn up in a loose bun at the back of her head, escaped strands forming a halo around her face that glowed just a little in the light that filtered out from the windows.

"Oh, well hello." Small dark eyes, hooded under their lids and the shadows of the night looked right at Andre. Not in a cruel way, or even too suspicious; certainly no more than any parent, or grandparent in this case, towards an unknown man speaking with their child on the veranda.

"Good Evening Ma'am." He dropped his gaze, just in case the woman was another telepath, he didn't want her able to glean anything from him.

"You must be Sookie's Andre?"

"Yes Ma'am." Sookie twittered a little as she sat back down, perhaps beyond her Grandmother's hearing range, but not Andre's. He marveled for a just a moment at how lonely the girl must be to have latched onto that concept so quickly.

"We've just been talking Gran." And how she defended their few moments together.

"Adele Hale Stackhouse." She introduced herself. He noticed, with some curiosity that she did not extend a hand as so many humans did. He didn't believe that it was out of fear of him. Curiouser and curiouser this woman.

"I hope we didn't disturb you." He offered, feeling her eyes on him, but no incursions into his mind. And most importantly, smelling no trace of Fae on her. It gave him some confidence and he looked directly at the woman, innocent (and practiced) smile on his face. She was not the connection. It had to have been the grandfather. Andre did not let the further disappointment show on his face of yet another dead end.

"Not at all young man."

"It has been a long while since anyone has called me that ma'am."

"Indulge me." She took her own seat between them, and redirected the conversation.

"Tell me about yourself young man?"

"I'd like to tell you there wasn't much to say, but I've seen a great deal over the last few centuries." Andre had made conscious choices about how much information he would reveal about his past. All of it would be true, not that he thought he would have trouble remembering any necessary lies, but it made for less things he would have to hide.

"I can imagine." The Grandmother was prompting him in a very calculated manner, it impressed Andre, her savvy, it was nearly worthy of him.

"I was born in the country now known as France. I don't know what it was called just then; it wasn't something we really worried about. I was very young when I was turned. My maker and I travelled around Europe for a great many centuries."

"Centuries?" Sookie whispered, at the same time as her Grandmother uttered,

"Maker?" Andre chose to answer the Grandmother first.

"It is the name we give to the Vampires that turn us. Our Vampire Parent as it were."

"I see." Mrs. Stackhouse's response was as tailored as his had been. He gave her a little grudging respect.

"I came to North America when she did. And we spent a great deal of time in hiding, though America provided much more opportunities to make a life than Europe did."

"And where is she now?"

"At this moment I do not know." And it was true, he hadn't looked at Sophie Ann's schedule that intently, so she really could have been just about anywhere.

"I chose to explore on my own, and to see if I could find a community for myself, now that we are able to move about a little more freely with the Great Revelation."

"Is that what you all call it?"

"We do. Though I understand that the fifth estate has taken to calling it 'Coming out of the Coffin'.

"Yes, I heard that today."

"Did you see all the wood Andre brought up to the house Gran?" Sookie seemed, to Andre, to be a little anxious to recapture the easy nature of their previous conversation. She was defending him against the inquiries of her Grandmother.

"We certainly do appreciate it Andre."

"There are much larger pieces out there, if you had an ax I could split them for you?"

"Jason usually does that for us. But he hasn't been around as much as he should lately."

"I understand that you likely don't want to tell a stranger if you have an ax around. But the offer stands, once I've proved myself to you Mrs. Stackhouse."

"Well that seems very reasonable. Don't be out too late then Sookie." And she stood, with little effort despite her age. "It was very nice to meet you Andre. I hope that we get to see you again."

"It was wonderful to meet you as well Mrs. Stackhouse. I look forward to earning your trust so that we may talk at length some evening." And Andre leaned forward, and took her hand, bring it to his mouth and kissing it very gallantly.


	9. Chapter 9

I have tried to reconstruct a family tree here, but there is limited SVM information. I have made up some names for continuity sakes, but things will stay cannon for all our main characters. As much as is possible.

Enjoy,

Merick

Chapter Nine

"What's it like, living at night?"

"Mostly the same as living during the day as I recall. Just a lot less crowded." Andre laughed a little. The conversation with Sookie had been quite light hearted after Adele had left, as if Sookie was trying to make up for the inquisitive nature of the questions. They'd talked about all manner of trivial things, Andre hadn't minded, it was all part of the plan. "You get used to it after awhile."

"But I bet it gets lonely?"

"It can, it has, but that is going to change now." Andre pursed his lips together and smiled a straight little smile for her. "We can come out and introduce ourselves now. We can make friends." He purposely reinforced her own suggestion from earlier, to good affect as she smiled shyly again and her eyes dropped down to her lap.

"Why don't you tell me a bit more about your family Sookie?" He prodded, not wanting to give up her company just yet.

"Well, you met Gran." She began. "As I said, Dad and Mom died when I was pretty little. I know Mom adored my Dad, and we had some good times together as a family, camping in the back garden and going to the community events like fireworks on the fourth of July and harvest picnics. I remember a little less about them with every year that goes by. Gran tries to tell me stories, so we both remember."

"And you grew up here?"

"In Bon Temps? Yes, my whole life. This house has been in the Stackhouse family since before the civil war. Though there used to be a lot more land." Sookie gestured around with her outstretched arm. "Grandpa used to farm, but after he died Gran had to sell off some of the land, especially after Dad and Mom died too. Grandpa had left her with enough, but she was determined to save my parents' house for us. She paid the taxes and upkeep on it for almost ten years, until Jason moved in."

"She sounds like an amazing woman Sookie."

Andre watched as Sookie's gaze shifted from him to the windows, illuminated from within. He knew she was thinking of the woman who had raised her and the parents she had lost. The shadows from the night showed off the curve of her beautiful neck in such a manner that Andre felt his hunger rise again, and his fangs drop. He averted his own gaze from her, back out to the woods until he could regain control. Sookie's voice began to sound far away.

"We have the woods, and the land out to the road, and up to the old cemetery. There's a path through there out to the old Compton place."

"Perhaps one day you will walk with me through there?" He offered.

"Yes, perhaps we will." Her distraction was annoying, but only briefly, as a movement in the woods pulled his attention away from more pleasant pursuits, and setting it to anxiety, which he tried to conceal.

"You are tired Sookie. I am so sorry for keeping you up so late." He stood, knowing he had to deal with whatever was lurking about before it had a chance to escape him. "I hope I can see you again tomorrow." Her expression wasn't as confused at his sudden change of topic as Andre imagined it might have been.

"I have to work late tomorrow, I'm sorry, maybe you won't want to wait for me?"

"Of course I will wait." But just then Andre knew he needed to move. "You should go in to your grandmother. She does not trust me yet, and I don't wish to give her any other reasons besides my nature to suspect me of any wrongdoings."

"She isn't like that Andre." Sookie began to protest.

"But I will be on my best behavior none the less." He offered his hand to Sookie and she took it to help rise.

"Your skin is cold." She looked at him with raised eyebrows, cocking her head to her right.

"I'm sorry Sookie. It's part of being a Vampire."

"It's okay Andre. I don't mind." She grasped his hand a little more firmly then and smiled at him, as if to reassure herself. "I'll see you tomorrow." Then she leaned in and kissed him very, very quickly on the cheek.

He saw her into the house and walked down the steps at a much reduced pace than his brain wanted. Though as soon as he felt it was safe, and he heard the curtains drawn in what he presumed was the living room, he took off at his top speed in pursuit of whatever, or whoever had been watching them. It took no great skill to locate the figure in the navy hoodie. Even less to catch him up around the neck with one hand and force him to the ground with a snarl and hungry fangs.

"Who are you?" Andre growled, all pretense of innocence and youth banished from his face, his cold eyes staring right into the being's soul even as his knee pushed him into the earth.

"I'm called Mathew." The tone of his voice was so arrogant yet so slurred, that Andre almost thought the Vampire beneath him could have been drunk. But, of course, that was impossible. "You smell amazing brother." He continued, "Was it that girl there? Is she your pet? Maybe you could share?"

"I am not your brother!" The implied threat to Sookie, and the realization that this Mathew could smell her otherness on him made Andre even angrier. He pressed his knee further into Mathew's chest, feeling ribs give way. "Who sent you?"

"Just passing through." The response was quieter, but not submissive.

"Sherriff Northman?" Andre paused, all senses on alert, including a healthy dose of paranoia. "The Queen?" He did not want to believe that Sophie Ann could be keeping tabs on him, but he suddenly understood that she might easily be. Sookie would be as much an asset for her as for Andre to conquer, and Sophie Ann did like to conquer. Andre's grip on the throat of the younger Vampire tightened cutting off any possibility of him answering. "Who sent you?" Andre hissed.

"No one." Thin lips mouthed the words as weakened hands reached for Andre's. The gesture was useless against the power, yet Mathew didn't even seem frightened of his own impending final death.

"I don't believe you!" And ancient fingers closed over the throat, tearing into the flesh until gobs of black blood oozed around them, obscuring the fine pale skin. The smell of the exposed blood hung in the air, further driving Andre's rage. Something about it wasn't right, just as something about the man himself wasn't right, but he didn't take the time to explore the questions, purpose drove him forward. The gore of the wound crumpled in Andre's anger until his fingers met themselves again, and Mathew's head was completely severed from his body. In moments the remaining mess collapsed into the forest floor. By morning, Andre knew, there would be no trace of the corpse, and whoever had sent him would be out one useless minion. Andre was furious, and just then he had no idea who to direct the anger towards, which was even worse.

ooOOoo

Andre had made a number of calls when he returned to his rooms, he might have sounded short with those he was able to connect to, or he might have just sounded like himself. It was getting hard to pull away from the role he was using to fool the telepath, controlling his thoughts as he had been doing. Whatever the mental effort though, it seemed to be working with her, because if she had been in his head she'd gotten no trace of any true motives, the ones he had buried. He was going to need that skill for a while yet. But, whatever the demeanor he projected over the phone, his inquiries had gotten him some of the names he needed, and alone, over the particleboard desk that occupied the wall opposite the bed, he wrote out the family tree, as he had so far ascertained it.

Adele Hale, daughter of Joseph Hale and Adelyn surname Ukn,

Brother: Bartlett Hale: no children

Mitchell Stackhouse, son of Corbett Winston Stackhouse and Elizabeth surname unknown.

Adele Hale married Mitchell Stackhouse: 2 children, Corbett Hale Stackhouse and Linda Stackhouse.

Child #1: Corbett Hale Stackhouse, married Michelle surname unknown, Child #1a: Jason Stackhouse, Child #2a Sookie Stackhouse

Child #2: Linda Stackhouse married Harper Delahoussaya, Child #1a Hadley Delahoussaye married Remy Savoy

It was a pitiful list as Andre scanned it over. It would have been more exciting if he could have included all the partners Jason had likely had, but no more useful. He was quite certain that it would do nothing to satisfy Sophie Ann's need for information, and she would be demanding that of him in fairly short order, (perhaps very short if Mathew had been one of her servants). He stared at the paper, knowing that Adele had no trace of fairy on her person, so that the likely lineage had to be through her husband, or through the father of her children if he was to be more precise. That possibility made Andre even more frustrated. Somewhere back there was a fairy, these things didn't skip generations (which let out investigating Adele's brother), but sorting out how far back seemed just then to be an impossible task; and perhaps in the end, an unnecessary one. Andre hadn't even tested out Sookie's possible telepathy, and its connection to the fairy blood couldn't be established either. His mind was running in uncomfortable circles, and so he slammed the cover of his notebook closed just so he didn't have to look at the names any longer.

"I will sort you out Sookie Stackhouse." He mumbled to himself. "And I will make you mine."

ooOOoo

The house was very quiet when Andre approached, he noted immediately that the graveled driveway had been leveled, and that a large stack of logs, still in need of splitting had been piled by the old garden shed. It would seem that Sookie's brother had finally arrived to do the chores Adele had alluded to the previous evening, or at least some of them. Perhaps she was intent on proving her independence in the face of the Vampire newcomer? Perhaps she had just used her considerable power as his grandmother to insist that Jason fulfill his obligations. Andre rounded the side yard and approached the porch, where another anomaly caught his eye, a little box, left on the second step, presumably right where he could find it. The indentifying markings were obvious, even from yards away, but it was the note on it that gave him a brief pause.

"A girlfriend at work asked me to look after her kids tonight after my shift, so I'll probably have to sleep over. I didn't want you to think that I forgot about you. I went all the way into Shreveport today to pick this up for you, just so no one around here would ask any questions. So your secret is safe. Sookie." She had even drawn a little happy face under her name.

The bottles in the box clinked together as he opened it: six Tru Bloods, each protected in its own little cardboard sleeve. He couldn't help but smile. And even though it wasn't his favorite beverage, and he wasn't really hungry (at least not for blood), he opened a bottle and drank it away completely. Then he tucked the case under his arm, put the empty around the back (after tearing off the black label), in the garbage bin that seemed to be devoted to such things, and retreated back into the woods.


	10. Chapter 10

Andre felt the disturbance in the very air itself as he returned to the house on Hummingbird lane. He had tried to convince himself that the anxiety he had been feeling since he had awoken from his daytime slumber was due to having not seen Sookie the night previous, and his lingering concern about the appearance of Matthew, the prowler in her woods. But as he came into view of the pickup truck parked beside Sookie's small yellow hatchback the feeling became almost palpable. He scanned about to find her, and the sound of her voice drew him around the periphery of the tree line, towards the back of the house, where he finally saw her, standing, facing two men, a large bouquet of flowers clutched in both hands. She seemed so small beside them, and Andre could hear the fluttering of her heart, even from a distance away, though he couldn't yet ascertain if it was from fear or arousal. He stayed where he was, and listened to their conversation.

"Come on Sookie. Come out with me, we'll go into Shreveport, see a movie, it'll be fun. You like to have fun don't you?"

"Well, sure, doesn't everyone?" Sookie was holding her own, but Andre could hear the twitter of panic in her voice.

"Then hop in the truck, we'll have a good time." There was a wide smile behind the benign words; Andre could just hear it in the intonation.

"Both of you? It doesn't seem right."

"I brought you flowers and all, don't you like them?" Eyebrows rose, innocence oozed.

"They're beautiful, but," The hesitance in her voice set Andre's skin to crawling.

"And you've known our family forever, we all went to school together." It seemed that the men there with Sookie must have been brothers, or cousins, or some such relatives.

"And you didn't treat me so well in school." She countered.

"Yeah, but you were just a kid then, and now, well, wow, just look at you."

Sookie stepped backwards, and Andre curled his hands into claws, fangs dropping, ready to pounce. He watched Sookie's forehead wrinkle, and her gaze at the one man who was speaking become intense. She was looking into his head, concentrating very hard.

"No." She held the flowers out back towards him. "You don't want to go out with me."

A hand grabbed at her arm, friendly, charming face replaced by one of upset and anger.

"Come on Sookie, not like you get many offers." Flowers fell to the dirt.

"Leave me alone! I will never do that with you!" She tried to wrench her arm away from the grip that was turning her skin white.

"You little freak! Get out of my head bitch!" He shook Sookie violently.

Then in a flash his grip was broken, and Andre had the offender pinned against the side of his pickup, his head slamming back against the sun faded sheet metal with a satisfying snap. His brother/cousin launched himself at Andre, trying to pull him off but Andre whirled his head and showed a snarl of fangs that earned two shrieks, one from the man, and one from Sookie, but neither truly registered, so focused was he on exacting his vengeance.

"Stop!" He hissed, and the man free from his grasp froze, so that Andre could turn his attention back to the one who had hurt Sookie. With his empty hand he drove a fist into the man's stomach, not hard enough to drive through the flesh, though he could have if he had wanted to, but hard enough to rupture internal organs, wounds that would kill him given enough time. Only Andre's hand on his throat kept him from doubling over to vomit.

"On your knees, both of you." Andre's commands were issued to both, his hand releasing the first with blinding speed, and just as quickly, both men dropped to the ground. "Look at me!" He roared. Behind him, he heard Sookie squeak, but he did not look at her. Two faces turned up to his. He addressed the injured one first.

"You will never harm Sookie Stackhouse again. You will never say another unkind word about her. And if anyone else says anything you will defend her, to your very death." Only then did Andre look up at Sookie, her face fallen, tears curling down her cheeks, flowers forgotten in front of her. The bared lips and gleaming eyes softened, as Andre understood the horror he was demonstrating to Sookie. He turned away from her judgment and bent down to the men.

"You have nothing but respect for Sookie Stackhouse. She is a beautiful, innocent, amazing person, far too good for the likes of you." His voice softened as he issued his last commands. "You will treat her that way for the rest of your life." Andre stood, his full height though not as great as the men he faced, looked absolutely majestic, and he returned his hypnotic gaze to the other man.

"You have heard everything I have said, you will live by my words. And you will take your friend to the hospital, he is very drunk, and there was a fight outside the bar, you have no idea who hit him, only that you were together, all night, drinking. You will remember nothing but my words. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir."

"Both of you apologize to Miss Sookie, right now."

"Sorry Miss Sookie." Both parroted out the words with little inflection. The tears continued to roll down Sookie's face. Andre heaved the injured man into the bed of the pickup, and sent his able bodied friend on his way. The contrails of dust from the gravel followed the pickup truck as it made it way up the driveway. Andre watched it depart, unable and unwilling to turn back to Sookie until it was completely gone from view. His shoulders slumped as he turned back. It had taken every strength he had not to the rip the humans to shreds. It took as much effort to calm down so that his fangs would recede. He had not wanted Sookie to see that part of him, not so early, not before he had properly snared her.

"Are you alright Sookie?" He whispered to her, a good ten feet still separating them.

"What did you do?" She sobbed. "You looked so," She couldn't finish her thought.

"I am sorry, I only wished to protect you. You will never have to deal with them again Sookie."

"How?"

"It is a gift we have, we call it glamour."

"Like hypnosis?"

"Yes."

"Thank you?" She began to shake and Andre rushed to her side, she allowed him to take up both her hands.

"Why was he trying to harm you Sookie? What was he doing? Why did he call you those names?"

"He came here to ask me out on a date, but it was a lie. He wanted to, he wanted to," She stuttered and began to go a little limp on her feet. Andre guided her up to the porch, helping her sit on a step. He sat beside her, his thigh touching hers. He could feel her shaking. She couldn't seem to look at him as she spoke.

"He wanted to do awful things to me, wanted me to do awful things to him. I could see it in his head."

"See it in his head?"

"Oh god Andre, I'm just a freak, like he said. I can see into people's minds. I can hear what they are thinking, or feel it. It's hard to explain. It's just a curse. It's why I'm always alone. No one wants to be near a freak." She broke down in wrenching sobs and folded her hands over her head, letting it drop into her lap.

"You aren't a freak Sookie. You are everything I told those men. Beautiful, amazing, kind."

"Then why can't people think nice things about me? Why do men always think about what I'd be like in those disgusting scenes?"

"Because they are men, immature, hormonal, asshole type of men."

Sookie almost choked out a laugh amidst the sobs. Andre brushed two fingers through her hair, needing to touch her, as much as to comfort her (though the impulse to do so confused him).

"Look into my mind then Sookie, you'll see the truth about yourself." She looked right at him, eyes wide, lips trembling.

"I can't. I can't read your mind. Everything about you is quiet Andre."

Andre felt the thud of disappointment crash directly into his chest, disappointment and yet some personal relief. She couldn't read him. She could only read humans; probably only living beings. He could get humans to tell him anything he needed by only capturing their eyes and compelling them; why would he need a telepath to do that for him? It changed things, he cursed inwardly. But there wasn't time to explore the ramifications because her head was turning towards the pressure of his fingers, and he had to return his full attention back to her.

"Why don't you tell me your story Sookie? I'm here to listen, as long as you need me." With a grateful sigh her body slumped against his, and the scent of her, and the sound of her slowing breaths and heartbeats made him feel dizzy. He couldn't pull away; his rational plan was collapsing, and was being replaced by something more primal. And somehow the change didn't seem wrong.

"I so need to talk to someone Andre."

"Then let it be me."

ooOOoo

They had moved back onto the porch, Sookie had composed herself, and though her cheeks were tear stained, and her lips so red and full, she was calm, almost dissociated as she began her story.

"It was always this way, as long as I can remember. I could just hear what other people were thinking. I didn't understand it at first, it was always so loud, I lost track of what was actually said, and what was just in people's heads. I answered questions that had never been asked, and felt the hurt of insults and other things that had never been voiced. The other kids thought I was crazy, the grown ups were scared of me. That kind of reputation just never goes away."

"That's part of the reason you spend so much time alone?"

"Yeah, it's quieter, easier on me. As I've gotten older I've learned to block it out to a degree. But when it's strong, like from men, about sex, I just can't stop it. And it hurts so much to know that that is all some people think of me."

"Not everyone." Andre whispered. "I wish you could see what I think about you."

"I don't. You can't understand how wonderful it is not to know, not to hear, to have a real conversation with someone, to not know what is coming next, especially when it's bad."

"I suppose so."

"I'm just broken Andre, I don't know why you would even want to be near me."

"Don't say those kinds of things Sookie. You aren't broken, you are gifted." She snorted her disagreement.

"There are so many things you don't know about me."

"Then tell me Sookie. I am the last person to judge."

"You are, aren't you Andre?" There was a resignation in her face, coupled with a soft sigh.

"Yes." He shook his head sadly, even as memories of his own were finally allowed to the surface.

"My Uncle," she began, clutching at his cold hand with desperation, "took advantage of a child that was already isolated."

"Oh god." Andre found the familiar taste of bile rising in his throat, even though it could only have been a memory.

"He had the most hateful images in his brain, things that made me shake, and want to throw up, even worse than the way he touched me, and held me on his lap, wanting me to squirm. No one believed me, no one understood except my Gran. She did her best to keep me safe, and when we came to live with her she cut him off completely."

"Does he still live?" Andre asked, Sookie nodded.

"Then I will kill him, for everything he has done to hurt you." And he was completely serious as he said it, his reaction so rapid that he even surprised himself.

"No Andre."

"No?"

"It won't make it any better. It won't change what happened. He's old now, alone, and I have to believe that one day he will pay for his sins, but it cannot be by my hand, or by my wish. That would make me a monster like him."

"How can you be so forgiving Sookie? When someone has hurt you so badly, how can you offer this charity?" She simply shrugged.

"It won't make me any better. I'll still have the feelings when other men think about me that way. They'll never go away, I'll never be normal."

"You will. I promise you Sookie, you will rise above this."

"But how would you know Andre? You're a Vampire, you're so strong, and fast, when could you have ever felt this kind of fear?"

"May I tell you my story Sookie?"

She nodded, wiping more tears from the rims of her eyes.

"I told you that I lost my parents when I was very young as well, didn't I?"

"You did."

"The man that took me in wasn't like your Grandmother. He used me for his own pleasures, and gave me to other men for theirs. I spent years on my knees, in control of nothing in my life. Set to manual labor when his lusts waned, subject to his abuses when they did not. I wanted to die. That was how my maker found me: in his control, broken and alone. She gave me the gift, gave me the power to transcend what he had made me. You only need to find that power in yourself Sookie, find your voice, find your place, and you will rise above these circumstances. I know you can do it."

"How do you know?"

"I am an excellent judge of character." That sentence made her smile, and laugh just a little for the first time in many minutes.

They sat and looked at each other, Sookie breathing slowly, in and out through parted lips, Andre nearly frozen, except for the fingertips that brushed over her shoulder, very slowly. It was a motion of comfort, something he had observed in humans over the years; touch made more than a physical connection, it was tacit joining in sympathy.

She was beautiful, her innocence was honest, and Andre could not help but feel drawn to her, physically, and mentally. He leaned forwards very slowly, giving Sookie the time to pull away, making his intentions very plain. He hovered just beyond the touch of her lips, taking in her exhaled breath, feeling it over his skin, and feeling her Fae aspect caress his entire soul. And then he kissed her, resting his lips atop hers, feeling her quiver, touching her nowhere else but there.

He pulled back, to allow her time to take a breath, knowing he could not share his own with her, and then he sought to return, to taste her again, but her head dropped, and he heard her whisper 'no'.


	11. Chapter 11

I am so sorry about the long delay for getting this chapter up. I hope you feel it has been worth it.

And thank you also to all those who have left such kind words for me. I haven't been able to return your kindness personally. But I appreciate every comment.

Merick

Chapter 11

Andre reeled backwards, he knew he'd heard her correctly, she'd said 'no' to his further advances, 'no' to another kiss, 'no' to him. He stood up, confused and sad, both expressions obvious in his face.

"Andre?" Sookie's own confusion did nothing to comfort him.

"I should leave." He began to stumble backwards, unsure of what to do for the first time in many, many years.

"No, please don't, I didn't mean it."

"I'm sorry."

"No, please, you didn't do anything wrong." Sookie stood as well, eyes pleading with Andre to understand, even though, by her own words, it was obvious she had no idea how to compose her thoughts. "It's just that you, you look,"

"Like a child? Like a monster? Worse? A freak?" He chose the word specifically because he was hurting; his first response was to hurt back.

"No, Andre, no, that isn't what I meant. I just can't, don't," Stuttering out her words, she reached for him and he took another step backwards, teetering on the edge of the porch. The slow progression of a car, crunching on the gravel gave him his escape.

"Your grandmother is coming, I shouldn't be here." Without waiting for Sookie to stumble over her words once again he tore away from her, as fast as he was able, leaving her, he was certain, even more confused at another revealed Vampire power.

Pausing for just a moment within the edge of the woods he looked back, hoping to see her following him, but of course that was an unreasonable wish. She had vanished from the porch, no doubt gone around to meet her Grandmother. His body was tight with anger, and misery and he fought back the blood tears that threatened to fall. How could he have become so, so, smitten by this breather? He gnashed his teeth together, fangs revealed, and curled his fingers into fists, not entirely certain what he wanted to destroy. Turning his back on her and the house, and the lights that were coming on, he began to run; swerving around the trees, toppling the small ones that got his way, until he had reached the clearing in the woods, the one with the peripheral shimmering, the one that made him feel odd, and hungry and curious. He fell to his knees as the whole 'vibration' of the place surrounded him and craned his head up to the night sky screaming, at first with rage, and fury and then despair. The blood tears rolled, his control was lost.

ooOOoo

Andre didn't know how much time had passed; he had been lost in self pity, wondering why Sookie had rejected him, and anger, wondering why he even cared? Her power was useless to him, she was just another breather, okay, not just another breather, one with Fairy genes that made her blood sing to him. But in the end she was simply another human wasn't she? Taste or not? (And he hadn't even tasted her). So why did this rejection hurt so much, she was nothing. Wasn't she? There was so much confusion he could barely sort through it. In all that chaos, he could hardly feel the demand of his body to find shelter because the day was dawning, everything was such a muddle of thoughts and instinct. Hands turned into claws, and dug into the dirt of the forest floor hardly bidden, carving out a grave into which Andre threw himself, piling the earth back over top of him. For the first time in hours, he thought it was hours, his mind went clear, and the tattered consciousness slept.

ooOOoo

The smell of earth was the first thing that assaulted his nostrils as he woke, it was musty and warm, and almost comforting in those first few moments of awareness, those blissful moments between oblivion and the return of memories. For when the thoughts did coalesce they hit Andre square in the chest, and their weight felt as though it was pushing him further into the ground, his limbs unable to respond. Above him he could hear the pounding of what was likely a Louisiana thunderstorm, but it was most certainly night, and he knew he had a decision to make. Heavy arms rose, fingers clawed at the loosened earth and Andre pulled himself from the pit, shaking the dirt from his hair and clothing. There was no way to remain clean when you slept in the earth, and when you awoke to a storm. The trees provided some cover, but still the rain plastered his shirt to his chest and flattened his hair to his head. The cold from the elements didn't bother him, but the cold in his veins did. The whole expanse seemed oppressive at that moment, almost as if an outside force was trying to influence his decisions, pushing him towards leaving, going back to Shreveport, and then on to New Orleans, unfulfilled, and defeated. But something fought against that idea, something that wanted him, needed him to return to the old farmhouse, to set things straight, to retrieve some of his damaged dignity, and to see, just one last time, if Sookie really wanted nothing to do with him. It was pitiful, his anger spat at him, he should return and take what he wanted from the girl and then cast her aside, on his terms. He clutched at his head as if the voices were palpable, and stumbled away from the clearing, deeper into the forest, where the pounding rain was thinner, and his mind seemed to clear a little. He was going back to the house, he knew that, if only to satisfy himself of the truth of her feelings, and his own. And then he could take his leave permanently of this backwater. Gritting his teeth, fangs included, he began to walk.

The house was quiet, excepting the sounds of nature, rain pounding on the old roof, water cascading down the drain spouts and pattering against the windows. It was empty, no heartbeats to be heard, even masked by the drumming. Sookie's car was gone. Andre had no idea when she might return, if she was out, if she was working, it made little difference to him. He was prepared to wait, as long as it took, until she returned and he could see her, question her if need be, with whatever persuasion was required. But where to wait for her, he pondered? He could wait on the porch, at least he'd be out of the rain, but then he would have to sit and watch it, and run the risk of all his insecurities and rage coming to the fore to taint their eventual reunion. No, he quickly rejected that idea, and settled on doing something physical. The pile of logs remained, still not split for the fireplace. It took no genius to determine that there would be an axe in the garden shed, where else would someone keep such a tool? Certainly not in the house, and there was no garage. His intuition proved correct. Setting the largest of the sections flat on the soggy ground Andre lifted the first piece atop it and began swinging the ax, splitting each round into halves, and then those into halves again, with rhythmic cracks, even louder than the thunder. It felt good.

When he had been human, physical labor had been an escape. It was a respite from the abuse, because you had to concentrate, at least enough to avoid cutting off your own limbs, and it was repetitive, you could measure every beat, of a breath, of a heart, of the fall of the ax. He focused on each swing, heard the wood squeal as it split, and felt the satisfying broken edges as he tossed each quarter onto a rapidly growing pile, even as the rain soaked his clothing through and nearly blinded each heft. He heard the car approach, but ignored it, still not certain what he would do if it were Sookie. The ax slammed into another log. He heard the car come to a stop. Footsteps were lost in the driving rain and the thrum of the ax against the wood.

"Andre?" It was her, safe on her porch, out of the rain, calling to him; he didn't look up at her.

"Andre?" She repeated, a little louder, "What are you doing?"

"I promised you firewood, as payment for my keep. I intend to fulfill that promise." The ax fell again.

"Come out of the rain, you'll catch your death."

"I'm already dead!" He spat back, anger making the first pronouncement. Finally taking his eyes, and muscles from the task of splitting the wood, Andre turned them to her. Her face was ashen, her eyes wide, her hands wrapped around her chest tightly, as if she was afraid that she might fall apart. She moved down the steps towards him, very slowly.

"Andre, you are frightening me!" It was less a yell than a loud supplication directed at him.

"That's what monsters do!" He slammed the ax down into the largest log, the one he had been using as a support, burying it halfway up the blade.

"You aren't a monster."

"Of course I am." His words were sharp.

"Not to me." Her words in return were, soft and pleading.

That statement stopped him; held his anger and tore it, and let the sorrow begin to leak through. She closed the few steps between them, still moving cautiously.

"Then why?" He asked, his tight eyes and clenched jaw falling. Even his fangs receded. "Why did you push me away?"

"I was, I am so confused Andre. It's so hard to explain."

He begged her to try with his honest gaze and limp shoulders.

"You're the first person I can't hear. I know what people think about me, what they feel about me. You are the first real unknown in my life Andre. I have to trust, but I don't even trust myself. I don't know what these feelings are; I don't know what your feelings are. What do I do?" She reached out for him, her right hand brushing his cheek and curving around his neck. He felt the gentle pull of her fingers, coaxing him forward.

"I can't tell you what to do Sookie. I only know what I want." He whispered, his eyes closing as she drew near, brushing her lips against his. He fought with his resolve, even as he felt the soft pressure of her mouth, and the warmth of her body radiating around them both. The rain cascaded over them as they kissed, making her shiver, he presumed, with cold.

"You should get in out of the rain." He told her.

"Not without you Andre." The water was flattening her blond hair to the sides of her face and trickling down her cheeks like tears.

"Your Grandmother won't like that."

"She isn't here. Please, come out of the rain with me?" She reached for his hand, tangling her fingers into his and tugging just a little. He tried halfheartedly to resist, but resolve broken by her nearness, he let her lead him away.

Sookie dropped his hand, only long enough to fumble her keys into the lock and turn it, it would have been enough time to run, but Andre knew that it was never going to happen. The door swung inwards, and Sookie crossed the threshold, looking back at him

"You have to invite me in." He whispered.

"What?"

"Say the words, it's, important."

"Andre? Won't you please come in out of the rain?"

He followed her through the open door into the dark house. It was how he had imagined it. Cluttered with knick-knacks, filled with old furniture, shiny spots on the rugs and wear patterns from multiple generations in the wood. It smelled of home cooking, no cigarette smoke there, and flowers and potpourri, things that might once have offended Andre's heightened senses, but right then, did not. He kicked off his muddy shoes.

"Come over to the fireplace, I've got it all set up." Sookie looked over at him, "Are you okay to start a fire here?"

"Fire doesn't bother me Sookie." His voice was quiet, even to his own ears. He sounded mesmerized, which he supposed upon thinking about it, that he was.

"Good, the lighter is on the mantle, I'll go get us some towels." Andre heard her footsteps pad away from him, and he watched his hand reach for the lighter, almost as if it wasn't even his own. He felt so displaced. He managed to light the logs that were there, and to stand back and watch the flames begin to lick around them, mesmerized. He only came back to himself when Sookie returned and her voice overrode the crackling.

"Give me your shirt, you're completely soaked." She was holding out a hand for it, a pile of towels now deposited in a wooden recliner of some sort. He pulled it off over his head and turned to her. Despite the water her scent clung to her and again Andre felt the drunken type of disorientation in his head. Though perhaps it had more to do with the fact that she had changed out of her wet sundress, (what had been its color, he couldn't remember), into a white robe, cotton he suspected, that clung to her body in an angelic silhouette.

"Thank you." He gave over his shirt and was handed a towel, though water continued to puddle around his feet.

"I guess you'd better give me your pants too." A blush rose in her cheek as she looked at him, it was beyond charming. "I'll turn around."

Her back was nearly as beautiful as her front, disguised as it was by the robe. Her thin waist, a gently rounded bottom, and toned legs, framed by the thin fabric. If he cold have drawn a breath to steady himself, Andre would have. As it was he struggled to undo the buttons at his waist, and to let the pants fall down to his ankles. Quickly wrapping himself in the towel so as to be modest, he scooped up the sodden pile and took the two steps to her.

"Here." He offered, touching her shoulder very softly, afraid to break whatever spell was being woven around them. She turned back, eyes looking straight at the ground.

"Thanks, maybe I'll just run and put these in the wash." Her voice was nervous, and Andre was fairly certain that it wasn't because she was staring at his now bare feet and ankles. But she was gone again before he could grasp the presence of mind to object. He returned to watching the fire take hold.

The orange and yellow tendrils flickered and embraced the dried wood with snaps of varying pitch and intensity. It was certainly not the first fire Andre had ever seen, and it was not likely to be the last. But it was the most important one that he could recall just then, and its warmth was like a blessing. Andre closed his eyes and let the feel of it wash over his body, towel still wrapped around his waist.

"You look peaceful." Was the quiet observation from behind him. "I'm glad. I was so worried for you Andre."

"You shouldn't worry for me Sookie." He opened his eyes slowly. The fire had taken a greater hold of its prey and was dancing merrily in the blackened hollow.

"You're my friend, I worry for all my friends." Hands touched both his shoulders from behind, and he felt her body follow them, drawing nearer to his skin.

"I don't think I've ever had a friend before." He mused.

"Not even the person who changed you?" Her hands drifted down his arms.

"A companion, someone I love, but perhaps not a friend."

"You have me."

He turned in her grasp to face her. Both about the same height, they looked directly at each other. That time Andre began the kiss, his insides demanding it, his arms wrapping her close, lips parting hers with desperation. He clung to her, deliberately breathing in her scent, coupling it with the taste of her. His fangs dropped, accompanied by a wash of electricity that radiated from his head down to his very toes, leaving him with a delicious shudder and the beginnings of a physical arousal he could not hide.

He felt her pull away, but could not stop looking at her. As he watched, her fingers rose and touched his lips. He let his jaw drop, knowing somehow that it was the fangs that were so fascinating her just then.

"Have I made you angry?" She asked

"No Sookie, not at all."

"Then why are your fangs down?"

"It is because I am, aroused by you Sookie."

"You are?"

"You are honestly, the most beautiful person I have ever seen Sookie; inside and out."

"Wow."

He could not help but allow himself a little laugh at her innocent response.

"No one has ever said anything that nice to me before."

"Then they are fools." He kept her held in his arms.

"It's kind of a fairy tale sort of thing." She smiled at him.

The smile, her scent, the taste of her kiss and Andre knew he was lost. Every power he'd had to distance himself, to play the rational, calculated game was gone. All he wanted, betrayed by his body and his mind, was to have her then.

"It's like a dream. Am I dreaming Andre?"

"Please Sookie." Andre could not remember ever being so afraid of a question, at least not as a Vampire. "Please. We can turn out the lights, I can be any lover you want me to be, any fantasy."

Sookie let out a very long breath and stared at Andre, he could see so much passing before him in the depth of her blue eyes as he waited for her response, any response.

"I don't want you to be anyone else Andre. I just want you to be yourself." She whispered.


	12. Chapter 12

I am so sorry for the delay in getting this out, my laptop went to the shop for awhile, I've worn off the keys,..

I hope you enjoy it even with the break.

Merick

Chapter 12

The bedroom was dimly lit from the hallway lights and little else. The rain had obscured the moon, and the security light from the back of the house barely penetrated the dim of the wash. The brass on the head and footboards of the bed gleamed dully, betraying decades of changed linens, polishing cloths, and softened mattresses, as did the quilt that covered it; hand-stitched, seams a little stretched in places, and shiny spots where the fabric had worn smooth. It was all so different to what Andre was used to having; Sophie Ann insisted on the best of everything knowing that she had the wherewithal to obtain it. (Though truthfully, she had never lacked for much.) And absolutely none of those memories mattered to him then. All that did matter was the woman who was leading him; her head bowed shyly, her grip on his hand nearly fluid, her heart beginning to flutter with the anxiety of bringing a lover to her bed. She crossed the threshold and he followed, closing the door behind him with a gentle creak and a metallic click of the well worn bolt in its housing. Dropping his hand, Sookie turned around very slowly, downcast eyes rising with some trepidation, though they didn't have far to wander to find his, staring at her, wanting her.

"Sookie," he whispered as he brought up his hand, skin still warm from the fire, and brushed it down her cheek. She leaned into the touch, sighing softly. "I want you so much." Her body trembled and he curled his fingers from her cheek, back around her neck, beneath the wet tresses, and drew her mouth to his. Andre parted her lips and shared her breath, tasting the anticipation that was welling in her; spicing the scents that were coming off her body; the human desire and the fairy genes.

His tongue teased her lower lip and pressed forward to penetrate her mouth, his fangs at full extension and hungry, his body hardening for her, the towel providing no concealment as he pressed his hips to hers, needing her to understand. The gasp that followed was delicious to him, pushing him further towards the edge, and he fought his base instinct for control because he had no intention of rushing this, it felt too amazing, and he felt so alive.

Guiding her backwards by a few steps with his free hand Andre kept his mouth pressed to hers, feeling as her confidence in the kiss grew, and the fragile reciprocation waxed in strength, until her tongue brushed over his fangs and her chest began to heave against his.

"Lay down." He purred at her as he pulled his mouth away, reluctance and anticipation both rolling in his chest. She did as he asked, first sitting on the edge of her bed, then drawing her feet up in a lady-like manner, her robe still maintaining her modesty, before reclining against the pillow. Andre was less modest as he crawled over the top of her, legs coming to straddle hers, towel drifting off his waist, pooling to his right on the quilt, exposing him to her. He watched the blush climb her cheeks as she looked away from his obvious desires, and back into his face; to eyes he believed were no less obvious.

"I want to see you." His fingers tangled in the belt of her robe, pulling at it, waiting to see if she would object. When she did not, he loosened it, letting the sides drop away so that he could run his hand into the fold, drawing it away from her skin just a little, exposing a strip of tanned flesh, and the hint of her breasts.

"You are so beautiful." Andre let his body dip down towards her, his manhood brushing against Sookie's thigh as his mouth hovered over the skin just between her breasts, exhaling slowly to further raise the gooseflesh that had accompanied her tremor at the feeling of him. He extended his tongue and drew it along the skin, listening to her suppressed moan.

Her skin tasted faintly of salt, and of the wild rain that had soaked them both through. And there was something else, perhaps two something elses: the spice of her arousal, teasing him, and the intoxication of the fairy blood hammering in her veins. Letting his head rest against her body Andre took deliberate breath after deliberate breath feeling every sensation run through his body, feeling the electricity run up his spine. During the pause in his actions, Sookie spoke.

"Andre?" Her voice was nearly breathless, like a breath of wind caressing his shoulder as it floated past him. "Is everything okay?"

"Everything is perfect." He pushed the robe away from her breasts and began to brush his hands over them, pushing his thumbs more roughly against her nipples until they stood for him. Her head fell back as his mouth took each nub in turn, rolling them around with his tongue. He wanted to drink, but he also wanted to suckle, to taste all of her and to thrust within her; making up his mind over his instincts seemed almost impossible. Her soft moans did not help clear the matter either. He pulled away to look at her whole body, the swells of her ample breasts, the way her trunk narrowed to her waist and then flowed to rounded hips and the secrets between her legs, which were really not secrets any longer as he watched her squirm just a little under his gaze. With a calm in her eyes she shrugged out of the robe and lay back on the bed, breathing audibly with her lips parted. He made up his mind then, hands going to her thighs, fingers curving inwards, spreading her body for him, just touching her, feeling her start under the unfocused caress.

In the dim light he could see how she glistened, even more so as he let a fingertip trace down her, opening her just a little more. She wanted him; there was no denying the signals of her body to his. He leaned in a little further, a little more pressure of his fingertips against her, his own sex brushing against the worn quilt, making him jump. He had not realized just how sensitive he had become with the anticipation.

"I need to be inside you." He circled her opening with his slick finger, pressing against her center as he passed it; she bucked against him, forcing him just a little deeper. The next moan was his. She was so tight and hot, and there was no holding back any longer.

He kissed her solidly on the mouth, forcing his tongue past her lips, stealing a breath and passing on, he hoped, his lust. Then he took his mouth between her legs and began to stroke her there hands holding her hips firmly as she began to squirm around for him, her cries only encouraging his vigor.

Such things were not foreign to him, he had been with women in this way before, had them perform for him as well, but everything about Sookie seemed new and different and magical. And if he had thought her blood would be delicious; and it most likely would prove to be, her other juices were just as stunning. He'd never had a fairy that way before, but it seemed that those intoxicating genes could be found in a great many of her fluids. He could feel her, under his ministrations, tensing for him, her breaths becoming be foreshortened, and he knew she was close. But he was selfish, and wanted to feel her orgasm as she was wrapped around him, and so he withdrew his mouth, and brought his rod to her, painting it along her opening, to torture himself with the electricity even as he continued to taste her on his lips.

"I want you." She gasped, and he thrust inside her, hands hard on her hips, head thrown back with the sensation of penetrating her for the first time. He knew there was no way of stopping himself then and he began to pound himself against her, their wet bodies moving in time. She moaned, she cried out, her hands found his forearms, her nails dug into his flesh and she met every thrust. Andre could hardly focus himself on her face; distracted by the way she moved against him, how she took him as deeply as he needed, how her hips met his, and how she arched for him and into him. He felt his orgasm building, faster than he could ever remember it doing. She was just as tense under him. His release came with hers, with the first contraction around his shaft he began to pulse, the force robbing him of his senses temporarily, all excepting that of his loins, which washed over him with pleasure, that slowly, like a ripple, worked out to every point in his body. Fluidly he pulled her body up to his in his left arm, cradled her against his chest even as he continued to come, then rolled her over onto him as he crashed into the bedclothes, taking her mouth to ride out the climax.

Temporarily spent, Andre felt himself slip from Sookie's body, but he only held onto her torso tighter. She had relaxed completely into him, her skin was gleaming, her breaths were slow, and her head was heavy against his chest. He did nothing but listen to her heartbeat, and clutch at her as he tried to recover his senses; something he was not at all used to having to do. As its strength grew, so did his own desires for her, cresting again as his body grew hard and his desires for more than her flesh, once again pushed to the fore. He began to kiss her. She turned her face to him, and accepted every one with a blissful smile. The actions fueled him and he rolled over on top of her again, the muscles under his skin beginning to tense with anticipation.

She looped her arms over his shoulders and closed her eyes, chewing at her lower lip in a way that spoke to Andre about her own desires. Almost without conscious control his hips began to grind against her again. When she spread her own legs for him he entered her roughly, her cry of shock bringing forth his fangs again.

"I have to taste you Sookie." Andre hardly recognized the rough cadence of his own voice. She tensed, he felt the grip of her pelvis on his shaft change; not that it stopped his thrusting, that was beyond his control then. "No one will see the mark, I promise you."

She said nothing in response, but her arms tightened around him. He slowed himself, drawing out his strokes.

"Trust me Sookie. I would never hurt you."

"But will I turn into a Vampire?"

"No, that is a silly myth." Now was not the time, or the place to get into the intricacies of how a Vampire was made, only the time to get her permission, and quickly, before he took her without it.

"Will it hurt?"

Andre slipped his left hand down in between their bodies, balancing on his right arm as he began to stroke at her center, as slowly as his thrusts. He felt her beginning to relax the tension that had tightened her; at least temporarily, as the new sensations replaced the fear.

"Sookie?" He breathed his question into her ear as he leaned close to her, listening to the pulse in the veins running into to her heart, tracing a path and a point to strike.

"Yes." She arched against his hand and his sex, flooding him with electricity. He waited the pace of a heartbeat and then struck, with fingers and fangs, tasting the salt on her skin, just beside her breast and then the wash of her blood into his mouth. There was no stopping his orgasm as he flooded her body as completely as she did his. Her cries were lost in the maelstrom of her taste, he could hear her heart pumping, focused on it, and gave up trying to see and feel anything but how her blood raced through his system. It was bliss, beyond anything he had ever felt. His confusion at it all didn't set in until far later.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

She lay; eyes closed, quilt drawn up over her, curled into his arms and Andre thought to himself as he carefully combed her hair with his fingertips, that he had never felt so happy. She was warm and she smelled wonderful and her heart was beating slowly, just this side of sleeping. He had not hurt her as he had fed, and as he had loved her. He had been able, somehow, to restrain the urges that earlier in his life had called for dominion, and satisfaction through subjugation, or the pure physical act. It amazed him as he thought over it. Things had come on, come over him, and come through him in a rhythm that seemed so natural as to be innate. He really had never believed he'd had it in him; but that had been before Sookie. Maybe it was being away from Sophie Ann and her hold on him as his maker, maybe it was the fairy blood, maybe it was just Sookie? Maybe it just didn't matter right then? He pressed a kiss to her head and inhaled the scent of her hair, as clean as the rain that had soaked it, and as honest as the fire that had dried it.

"Mmmm." She moaned softly, and pressed her body against his. He felt himself growing hard with desire for her again. He clutched her, burying his face against her neck. Unmoving. He felt her hands reach up for him, stroking his head and shoulders carefully. He allowed himself to enjoy her touch; not immediately aware that his immobility might be confusing to her.

"Andre? Are you asleep?"

"No." He whispered.

"Did I do something wrong?"

"No, no," He moved to look into her eyes, "You are perfect, your blood is perfect, your body is perfect."

She giggled a little, hiding her face with a southern modesty that caused Andre to smile. He was doing that a great deal all of a sudden he noted, and he leaned in to kiss her squarely on the nose. She giggled again, her voice and heart beat gaining strength as he pulled her into wakefulness. He began to stroke down her side, wanting to curve his fingers against her abdomen, and downwards from there.

"Will your Grandmother be home soon?"

"No, she won't be back until the day after tomorrow." She said it as if it was the most natural thing to say, but Andre felt a lightness wash over him like a breath.

"Really?" He was incredulous.

"Yeah, she's going to New Orleans. She and some of the ladies are going on a museum tour. She was supposed to leave tomorrow morning, but the storm made her nervous, so she asked me to drive her into town tonight, she's staying with a girlfriend overnight so she doesn't miss the bus."

Andre had totally forgotten about the storm raging around them, he had been so lost in her. He offered a silent thanks to it, as he rolled himself over on top of Sookie, grinning at his good fortune.

ooOOoo

The rain had stopped just a few hours before dawn, and Sookie had fallen asleep finally, as much as she had tried to fight it. Andre had bundled her into her quilt, taking the time to feel its softness under his fingers as he drew it about her. The motion of the bedclothes released the scents of her, and of them, and of the house itself, such a safe, comfortable place right then. He found his clothing, still warm from the dryer where she had set it, clean and ready for him, and as much as he hated to cover himself, (he would have much preferred to stay naked with her) he knew that his time was drawing short for that night. He couldn't immediately leave though. In the sitting room the fire had died back, but he could see well enough to make out all the pictures that covered the mantle. Sookie, her brother Jason, from childhood to adulthood, some photos faded, with two other adults, features betraying them as the lost parents. There were others of Adele and the children, and Adele with an older man, her husband, but more than likely not the father of her children. Andre grinned. Even 'back in the day' such indiscretions were not impossible; especially with a fairy thrown in the mix. It was easy to trace the lineage when presented with the pictures. The strong features of Mitchell Stackhouse had not been passed down to his children or grandchildren. He wondered whom the fairy was, and how he had come to Adele, and he wondered if the fairies were even aware of Sookie's existence. He concentrated on the stillness of the house now that the storm was over; he could hear the old refrigerator humming and the intermittent drips of water from the eaves and down the roof. And he could hear Sookie's quiet breathing. It drew him back to her.

Sitting carefully beside her, he leaned into her and kissed her forehead softly, wanting her to waken for him, but not wanting to startle her in doing so. She stirred, smiled and opened her eyes to him.

"You look so beautiful Sookie, I don't want to leave you." He watched as her forehead wrinkled up and she pushed herself up on her forearms.

"Why do you have to leave?"

He stroked her face.

"It isn't safe here for me during the day Sookie. A stray beam of sunlight," he brushed his fingers over her lips, "would hurt me greatly. I could not bear it if you were to see me that way. And you don't have a basement where I could hide. I'll have to go back out to the woods for now."

"I wish you could stay Andre." Her voice was so deliciously lazy it crossed his mind to find a way somehow to make the place habitable for him in his daytime slumber; a hidden room, perhaps beneath the floor? But there wasn't time just then.

"I wish I could too, but rest assured," he took up her hands and squeezed them, "I'll be back tomorrow night, if you will have me."

"I will. I will Andre. But I have to work, I won't be home till after midnight." The worry that crossed her face only disposed him further towards her.

"I will wait. May I kiss you before I go?"

"Yes."

ooOOoo

The taste of her lingered on his lips as Andre went to ground. He had no intention of leaving her woods that night to seek shelter back in Shreveport, even if he couldn't lie beside her, he couldn't leave her. Returning to the grove that had so frustrated him the night before, he stripped to his bare skin and re-excavated the grave he had previously made for himself, the rain having collapsed most of it. Clutching the clothing she had washed for him to his chest; the scent of her home, and her body filled his nostrils as he settled himself into the earth. It seemed to embrace him and hold him in much greater comfort than it had before. Feeling that enveloping calm sent him to his day's sleep quickly, the images of her the last thing he remembered, and the first thing to fill his mind when he woke. Sadly though, that peace did not last as he emerged, immediately feeling the presence of another Vampire; his fangs dropping with an unbidden hiss.

The sky around him was black, and the very air itself was vibrating again. He dressed, grabbed up the duffle bag he had hidden away under the scrub and followed the disruption to his calm with a single mindedness; intent on killing whoever had been stupid enough to ignore the warnings yet again. He stalked through the trees, low to the ground, taking deep breaths for the scent, scanning at his preternatural speed for any disturbance. But his prey was making no secret of hiding himself, stepping through the undergrowth with determined steps; cocksure or stupid, it remained to be seen. Standing to his full height he confronted the interloper with a growl.

"Andre? Well this is fortunate." The smile was smug, the eyes gleaming, and it only infuriated Andre further.

Eric Northman was lit by an internal luminescence, or so it seemed to Andre then, but the sight of the Viking did nothing to stay the rage that the disobedience had raised in him.

"What are you doing here Sheriff? I left instructions that no one was to come out here! Was the example I had to set with Matthew not enough?"

"Who is Matthew?"

"The foolish Vampire who came in search of me only a few nights ago. No doubt at your bidding."

"I swear to you Andre, I have sent no one to spy on you. I would not even be here myself but for the orders I was given. I have much of my own business to oversee. But, when your Queen commands you, you do as she asks."

"Sophie Ann sent you?"

"You have been unreachable for two days and nights. The Queen was worried for your safety. Does she have reason to be?"

"Do I look like I am in danger!" Andre's answer was not formed as a question; it was a statement of a growing sense of dread. Northman had not sent Matthew, though he could have been lying about that, and now Sophie Ann was sending her Sheriff to check up on him? Andre saw the fragile relationship that he had only just begun to build, suddenly crumbling to dust. If he could have trembled, broken out into a cold sweat, Andre believed that he would have done just that right then, under the ambiguous gaze of Northman. He fought the panic.

"No, you don't appear to be." That even tone was beyond aggravating to Andre and he clutched at his bag tighter, fighting the urge to simply end Northman.

"I will call her myself then!" He tore at the duffle, digging for his phone, only to find it soaking wet in an outside pocket. "Morbleu!" He cursed. It was no wonder that Sophie Ann, and whatever new minions she now had in her employ had been unable to contact him. He crushed the phone to plastic shards in his fist, tossing it away from himself.

"Telephone your man, and tell him I will be needing another phone Sheriff. We will go to Shreveport directly and I will speak with the Queen." Andre knew that he had to mitigate whatever damages his carelessness had caused, though he had no idea exactly what he was going to tell his maker to buy himself more time in Bon Temps.


	14. Chapter 14

Another installment of Sookie and Andre. Thank you, sincerely, to everyone who has taken the time to read this and to those who even left reviews. I am humbled by your kind words, and touched that you have allowed yourself to see Andre as a noble creature.

Your servant

Merick

Chapter 14

Vampires could pass time, when it was required, by setting themselves into a frozen type of state, shutting out everything, mostly everything, until such time as their attention was required. Andre found himself quite unable to do that, waiting for Burnham to appear at the club with his new phone. He heard, or imagined he heard the movement of the minute hand on the antique clock in Northman's office, counting every second that passed, trying to compose his mind enough to come up with a reason to provide Sophie Ann, to allay any suspicions she might be having about his absence and the motivation for it. Thankfully at least, Northman had left him to his peace in the office. And though his partner, this Pam had interrupted him once, likely to check up on him at her maker's request, it had been an otherwise solitary vigil. Thoughts of Sookie kept creeping into his head, and fears; fears that Northman would become aware of her, fears that Sophie Ann would demand her, and the fear that he would have to leave her behind. They all mixed together, along with the pleasures his body remembered leaving him confused and directionless; which was a terribly odd feeling for him. The soft knock, when it came, was welcome.

"I have your new phone sir." Bobby held out the box it had come in, lid askew as the service had been set up and the thing charged for his use.

"Thank you." The absolutely out of character response was made before Andre was even aware of it. He reached for the phone as Bobby backed away, and again left him to his privacy. Trembling fingers dialed Sophie Ann's private office, his heart relying on his innate intelligence to deal with the problem of her, with the finesse so previously commonplace to him.

"Hello?" The voice was bored and languid, as it so often was when Sophie Ann was busy with proper work, work she normally considered beneath her.

"My Queen."

"Andre? I've been so worried." The tone perked up immediately, and Andre could not help but feel the pull of her connection to him flair in his blood.

"I must offer my sincerest apologies my Queen. I have carelessly allowed my phone to become damaged, and myself to become distracted with the task at hand."

"I have missed you Andre." She actually sounded sincere, which only made Andre's task of lying to her that much harder. Centuries of feelings fought with the new emotions, and Andre actually thought he was feeling a little sick to his stomach. "But tell me, how is your task coming? What has you so distracted?"

"It is taking much longer than I had anticipated." He was very glad that he did not have to look her in the eyes as he spoke. "This little town, with its population of weres is less disposed to the supernatural than I would have hoped."

"Have you spoken with the girl yet?"

"I have, but I wish to proceed very carefully with her. It would better if she was at ease with us no matter the truth of these powers Hadley has spoken of."

"So you have seen no evidence of them?"

"She has not been able to read my mind as of yet, at least not that she has revealed to me. But she is only just now beginning to accept my very being, and to open up to me about herself."

"Open up to you? An interesting tack, though I know you can be very charming Andre." He could see in his mind Sophie Ann's indulgent smile, and the fangs beneath her lips. Truly, she indulged no one but herself, and demanded no less from those around her.

"I don't simply want this to be about seducing the girl, or glamouring her into spilling her secrets by force. I want her to trust me, and to come to us of her own volition. I'm sure you must agree that a servant of sound mind is worth a great deal more than one who is mindless."

"Of course Andre. Do what you must. If she is an asset then bring her to me, and I will find a use for her. If she isn't then you must come home to me yourself." The words, typical of Sophie Ann made Andre's blood run cold, Sophie Ann would most certainly use Sookie, and in so many ways that Andre could not bear to imagine. He forced himself to choke out a sincere sounding response to her.

"Of course my Queen. I think of little else but returning to your side."

ooOOoo

Andre saw little reason to hide his anger as he emerged from the office. In a thousand years he had done little else but follow Sophie Ann about like a well-heeled dog. Up until a week ago it had not truly bothered him. She was his maker, a sometime lover, a figurehead of power, and someone he was devoted to, despite her regular dalliances with mortals and other vampires. She had always come back to him in the end, while he, he had never left her. But now she threatened something that was his, and he had no idea what to do. That confusion presented itself stiffly as he returned to the bar where Northman and his offspring were. He hoped they would not be fool enough to question him, but he did not expect it.

"All is well with the Queen?" Northman hardly made eye contact as he spoke, leaned over the bar, making as though he was staring at the patterns in the polished woodwork: it was insulting.

"Things were never amiss." Andre snapped back, perhaps more sharply than he normally would have, but he was well on edge, and not a good edge.

"And you intend to return to this Bon Temps place then?" The voice never changed, Andre knew that the Sheriff was trying to provoke him into giving something away, but he still had the presence of mind to counter the parry.

"I intend to remind you that you and your people are to stay away from it." He reigned in his anger, regaining some control.

"As you wish. Shall I have my man keep your rooms ready?"

"I shall let him know when they are no longer required." Andre took Northman right out of the conversation, bypassing his involvement and shifting it to his day-man. It made him feel just a little better, though the sentiment did not last as Northman fell into step beside him as he made his way out the front doors of the club.

"Whoever she is," the Sheriff leaned in and whispered to Andre, "I hope she is worth deceiving the Queen."

Stopping in his tracks Andre hissed at Northman with true vehemence, his fangs dropping.

"You will stay away from Bon Temps Sheriff, or you will suffer." He looked back at Pamela, waiting at the bar for her maker. His voice became so low that Andre knew she would not hear him. "And your blond will suffer, slowly, long before I get to you."

ooOOoo

It was after midnight, Andre knew it, and yet he could run no faster. His gut was in knots; Sophie Ann was pulling his reins in tighter and Northman knew there had been a woman, and perhaps even understood something about her otherness. If he had needed to breathe Andre knew he would have been feeling the constriction in his chest. As it was, his heart flopped back and forth between anger and fear. One emotion he was familiar with, the other he had left behind along with his mortality. He wanted her, she was his, and he just had to sort out how to keep her. The distance between them was excruciating.

He glimpsed Sookie from the road, on the porch again, sitting in one of the faded chairs, hands in her lap, face to the woods. She did not immediately see him as he came down her driveway, but he could see her and hear her all too well.

"Sookie?" His call spoke out with all the pain in his heart. "Have you been crying?"

He watched her wipe obvious tears from her cheeks as her face turned to his, and bounding up the steps, he dropped his bag on the wooden floor, and himself to his knees in front of her. Her lips were swollen and red, her cheeks tearstained, eyes hardly able to meet his. He took up her hands and held them tightly to his chest, kissing the knot they made as he held them together.

"What has happened?"

"I didn't think," she sniffled, "I didn't think you were coming back."

"Oh Sookie." He whispered.

"I thought that maybe you got what you wanted from me and that you just left."

"Never Sookie." He pulled her forward into his arms, kissing her cheeks as he did so. Her body trembled against him and he inwardly cursed himself as he caressed her back. "I am so sorry I am late."

"Did something happen?" Her voice still sounded so small to his ears.

"When I woke I found another Vampire in the woods." He held her through the shiver.

"What did you do?"

"I spoke with him and asked him to move on."

"And did he?"

"I took him myself, all the way to Shreveport."

"And he won't come back?"

"I made myself quite clear that he shouldn't. I will not let anyone harm you Sookie."

"You think he meant to harm me?"

"No, but I will take no chances. You are too important to me."

"I am?"

Andre let his grasp of her slacken, so he could pull back to look into her eyes.

"You are." The seriousness of his tone even frightened Andre. He let the response hang, trying to find something in the depth of her beautiful blue eyes as she stared back at him, just as mute as he while she processed what he had said. He watched her as she stood slowly, and he followed her fluidly.

"Do you have time to stay for awhile?" She offered her hand and Andre took it. He grabbed up his duffle bag; intent on not letting anything else untoward happen to his phone, and followed her through the screened door. "I don't want to be alone tonight."

"Neither do I." The bag was tossed haphazardly to the nearest chair. Andre didn't even follow its progress. He was in front of her before it landed, wrapping his fingers around the back of her neck, pulling her into his mouth for a desperate kiss. The taste of her was nearly beyond his ability to control himself. He ground his lips against hers with a desperate violence, Sookie reciprocating until the point when an errant fang scratched her lower lip, and it was Andre who backed away first; transfixed on how the blood welled into a ruby pearl. When Sookie raised a hand to dab at it he caught her arm, instead returning his mouth to the tiny wound, his tongue curling around the scant drop, taking it into himself, shuddering with the magic of it and returning for more, pulling at the tear, taking the moan of pleasure that escaped her throat at his attentions along with the blood. In a swoop he pulled Sookie up into his arms and took her to the bedroom.

Laid tenderly upon her bed Sookie hands went to the hem of the white tee shirt she wore, and Andre watched as she wiggled free from it, even as he pulled off his own shirt, the one Sookie had washed for him. He laid it over the brass railing of her footboard carefully despite the desires that were tearing at his entire body. He wanted to watch her, for a moment, to commit the scene of her to his mind forever, because nagging at him, always in his mind, was the thought that he would have to leave her behind.

She was so beautiful. The swells that were her breasts rose and fell almost as if they were integral to her heartbeat. Her hair fell back around her head in an aura, so much more than a halo, the blond complimenting the blue, all of which complimented the healthy glow of her skin. As he inhaled of her scent Andre felt he might almost be smelling the sunshine itself, along with everything magical about Sookie. His body throbbed in need of her.

Her small hands reached for him, grabbed the waistband of his pants, caressing him, coaxing him to undo the fastenings; he was only too happy to comply with her wishes, easing them off his hips even before she had made a move to shimmy out of the little black shorts she was wearing. His were on the floor before hers, and in all his manhood he laid out over top of her, only the lace of her underthings between them. He could not keep his mouth from her. She received the kisses to her mouth in kind, her tongue tangling with his, not for dominance but in the depth of tasting each other. She arched as he kissed her throat and curled as he took himself to her breasts, pulling the lace aside, and taking her like a feast. Every movement she made encouraged him further and drove the electricity through his member, into his gut, making him gasp and drive again and again. He could have given himself up to her with just that, but he wanted more.

Her bra was torn away, her panties too, and without a pause he pushed her thighs apart and settled himself between her legs, the soft quilt cradling him as he drew in the scent of her honey and began to lap at her, soft moans accompanying him. His hips writhed against her bed as he worked her, fingers held her tightly in place for him, and he tasted depths as sweet as her blood. Her body practically hummed for him as he took her to the edge, prepared to carry her over it when she grasped his shoulders, and managed to speak out through the waves that threatened her.

"No, Andre, please, not unless you are inside me. I need you inside me."

To her it must have seemed a blur as Andre moved to lay directly over her, the head of him at her opening, his mouth, fangs and lips glistening, hovering over her own parted vermillion.

"You want me?"

"I want you." In one thrust he buried himself to the hilt within her body, not waiting for any further pleas, beginning to pump against her, watching her eyes flutter as she gave herself to him completely, the column of her neck offered. But he did not bite, absorbed in the way she held him so tightly he concentrated only on the rhythm until she could hold out no longer and her pulses pulled him within, milking the orgasm from his shaft even as hers ebbed. On trembling arms, he held himself within her as long as he could manage, and finally relaxed to the bed beside her, receiving the tender caresses of her fingertips over his chest, listening to the slow breaths she took.

How can I ever leave her? He asked himself.

"Did you want to, um, have my blood again Andre?" Her shy, hesitant offer sent a warm shudder though him.

"I dare not. I drank from you last night, I don't wish to hurt you Sookie." An absent-minded thought poked at his mind as he stared into her eyes; the Blood, yes, the Blood, it was all about the Blood.


	15. Chapter 15

I am terribly sorry for the wait in getting this chapter up. I hope you will feel that it has been worth the wait. Our story is drawing to an end soon, and I sincerely thank everyone who has taken their time to read it, and thank everyone who has left a review. You make this pursuit worthwhile.

M

Chapter 15

Sookie was fading, the night had grown short, and she had been dozing on and off for the last hour or so, but selfishly, Andre could not let her drift completely. When she did let her eyes close and her breathing slow he worked over in his mind how he could convince her to take his blood, and to take enough of it to effect the bonding. But when she sighed or started from her sleep he was devoted to her entirely, taking kisses from her mouth, and caressing her hair as shimmering eyes focused on him alone, before the lids drooped once again. Sadly thought, it was late, and he knew he would have to leave her side.

"Sookie?" He brushed his lips over her forehead. "I am so sorry, but I have to go."

She shook herself to waking again with an unhappy squint of her eyes and lips.

"I don't want you to go." The slow words made his heart ache.

"I don't want to go either." He threaded his fingers into hers and held her.

"I could make some space in my closet, and I'll put blankets over the windows?"

"You are so kind Sookie. But it isn't safe. What if your Grandmother was to come in? The fright she would have, finding me there, I could not risk it."

"I'll warn her."

"We should not warn her, but ask her permission first. Besides," he ran his fingertips down the side of her face, her fatigue was causing tears, or perhaps it was genuine unhappiness? "I do not know if I am ready to let you see me that way, incapacitated by the daytime. I don't want to frighten you."

"Why would seeing you asleep frighten me?"

"Because I don't breathe Sookie, or move, or have a heartbeat. I do not wish for you to see me like I am truly dead."

"Oh Andre."

"I will be back for you."

"Do you promise?"

"I will do better than promise, I will swear it to you Sookie; on my life and on my blood. I will return to you." Andre bowed his head, and willed his fangs to emerge. "I offer you my blood so that you will know that I speak the truth." He brought his hand up to the teeth; prepared to bite when she stilled him, putting her hand atop his.

"I'm allowed to drink your blood?" Her eyebrows had risen, and a look of apprehension colored her face, all signs of slumber now gone.

"It will not harm you Sookie." He laughed, "Or turn you into a Vampire. But, it will be my pledge to you, because I will be leaving part of myself within you. More than just my heart."

Her eyes began to look watery again so Andre knew he had chosen the correct words and actions.

"Will it do anything to me?"

"I have been told that it will make you look more beautiful in the eyes of others who see you; though I cannot see how that would be possible, as you are the beautiful woman I have even known."

She twittered a little.

"I am told that it might also give you dreams of me."

"I already have those."

"Perhaps they will be more intense?"

"Well, I have a pretty good imagination, but I guess that would be okay." The sleepy smile had wakened into something so enticing.

"Will you drink from me Sookie?"

Biting her lower lip in a darling and shy sort of way, she nodded. And so Andre bit through the fleshiest part of his palm, just below the thumb, and as the blood pearled there over the two punctures he offered it to her.

"Does it taste bad?" She questioned, looking hesitantly at the bite.

"You are the first human I have offered it to, I cannot tell you."

Warm hands took hold of his wrist and pulled the hand towards her mouth. Pursed lips first kissed the bloom, and then the tip of her tongue emerged to lick the bloodstain from her skin. Andre closed his eyes, and felt the shudder run through him at her most intimate touch. A pause, a tremble from her fingers, and then her lips came again, parted, latching onto the wound and drawing from it very carefully. A moan slipped from his parted lips, and he knew he was growing hard for her again.

Other vampires had tasted him before, Sophie Ann foremost among them, but her touch, as sensual and hungry as it had always been was nothing like that of the mortal. Sookie was so tremulous at first, hardly drawing on the little wounds at all. Her tongue carefully lapping at the thin pulses, delicate swallows rolling down her neck; he could hear the vibrations; and he echoed them in his own body. His free hand slid under her back bringing her body nearly atop his so that her hips, unencumbered by the sheets, rested over his hardened sex. He began to grind against her. She arched for him and he found himself inside her again. Only then did she release his hand and sit up atop him, her breasts heaving as he thrust against her. The ruby stain of his blood stayed on her lips, the sight of it pushing him to his edge, and then over it with a growl.

If there had been any way that Andre could have remained with Sookie that day he knew he would have. But just as he had said to her, in the kindest terms he could think of, he did not want her to look upon a corpse should she chose to check in on him. It was true, his age allowed him to remain awake past the sunrise; though not without the cost of the bleeds that caused his own blood to seep from his eyes, ears and nose, another altogether unpleasant sight. Once he found a way to bring her home, to his home, he would introduce her to these things, he would change her patterns so that she would wake with him at sunset and sleep with him at dawn. The thought of her as his lover took him into his earthen slumber with some ease, and knowing that she had taken some of his blood gave him a needed sense of peacefulness.

ooOOoo

The first thing Andre felt upon awakening was pain, and he knew it was not his. It seemed even the scant bit of blood she had taken from him had begun the process, and for that he was glad, but for her suffering he was not. It was simple to find her, at home, though he nearly forgot himself with the desire to charge through her front door to attend to her. Prudence stopped him in time, and Sookie's Grandmother opened the screen door to his controlled knock.

"Good evening Mrs. Stackhouse, I was wondering if Sookie might be home?"

"Well good evening to you as well young man, yes, Sookie is home." The face beneath the grey halo looked drawn and tired.

"Might I be able to see her?"

"She's, she's," Adele stuttered a little, though it did not seem to be out of fear by Andre's estimation.

"What has happened to her?"

"She's had a little accident."

"What?" Andre felt the muscles in his chest tighten and fangs drop, the urge to rush past the woman at the door coloring his vision red.

"Andre?" The voice from inside was soft, but laced with the tension of pain. Andre looked from the empty space behind Adele, then back to her eyes.

"She's in the kitchen, go to her." Adele mouthed, and stepped aside. As he moved Andre heard the screen door squeak closed behind him and he felt the presence of Sookie's grandmother following him, but he chose not to look backwards. He kept his pace to a mortal speed, even though he wished nothing more than to race to Sookie; even milliseconds seemed overlong then. He found her at the kitchen table, her left arm laid out on the old Formica top, cradled by her right hand, gauze draped over it, little tubes of ointments spread out around her. Her face was stained by tears, easily seen as her hair was dawn back in a ponytail; her lips pursed together as she tried to smile for him as he stopped, glaze flickering between her face and her injury.

"What has happened?" He repeated himself.

"I burned myself."

"How?"

"I was distracted and I knocked the kettle off the stove, the boiling water splashed all over my hand."

He sat just beside her and reached to carefully take her arm, lifting the gauze. Her skin was an angry red with a swath of blisters nearly as wide as a slave bracelet from just below her thumb down past the jutting bones of her wrist. She muffled a little gasp as he saw it.

"I was just going to go into town to see if I could find anything to treat it and bandage it up properly." Adele's voice was as soft as Sookie's as if she felt every stab of pain as intently as her granddaughter did. "Unless you can help?"

There was a knowledge behind the question, though it did not startle Andre much to learn yet another secret. Adele knew about more than just the existence of Vampires, she knew some of their talents, and she was offering her blessing, or perhaps a test to Andre by asking him to reveal them. He did not hesitate.

"I can help you Sookie."

"Why don't you two go somewhere more private then?" Adele smiled at them both and retired to the sitting room. Both heard as she turned up the television.

"I don't understand Andre." Sookie's eyes were still rimmed with red, and partly closed as she fought the obvious pain.

Andre stood wordlessly, and urged her to do the same, offering her his hand. Her heartbeat pulsed in his ears, her scent swirled around him and the sensation of his blood flowing in her body made him feel ethereal; as if he was in two places at once.

"Trust me Sookie. May we go to your room?"

Parted lips and wide eyes accompanied her confused nod.

"I will explain, I promise."

Andre took the lead and Sookie followed him sitting on her bed, watching him as he closed the door and began to unbutton his shirt. She did not question when he cast it over the foot of the bed and came to her, kneeling before her.

"How were you distracted Sookie?" She blushed and her head sagged to her chest.

"I was thinking of you, and of us."

He felt immediately sick to his stomach.

"I am so sorry that I have caused you this pain. But I will take it away now." He moved to sit beside her, careful not to touch her arm in his haste and concealed glee. It was not his first thought, the fortune of the accident, but it was in his mind nonetheless.

"How?"

"You must take more of my blood. It will heal you."

"How?" She repeated, still holding her arm close to her chest.

"I do not understand the mechanism of it. I only trust in the tales of magic that my maker has shared with me. Will you take it again Sookie?" A tear squeezed from the corner of her eye as she shut them with a wince.

"Yes." She whispered.

"Thank you."

Again, with careful movements Andre slipped himself in behind where she sat and urged her to lean back against his bare chest. Her warmth continued to amaze him, and at that moment her frailty began to frighten him.

"You will need to take more than last night, you must take it from my wrist, it will flow faster. Do not let it frighten you. It will heal the burn and leave no scar."

"Okay." She stuttered, letting her left arm down carefully onto her lap.

"Now drink my love." The words slipped from his mouth before he had even understood what he had said. His fangs made the crunch into his right wrist, and he brought it to her lips as his left arm cradled her, and he kissed the back of her neck softly.

Pain made her timid at first, but the flow of the blood was substantial, and Andre felt the draw of her mouth on his skin quicken, which quickened his own blood flow. He held her tighter, his fangs brushing the velvet nape of her neck as she fed from him. He could feel her body uncurling from its protective pose of discomfort as the blood did its work but yet she continued to drink, not in a hungry fashion, but in something that morphed into the erotic. Sookie turned her head with purpose, still holding his wrist to her lips, and without a word he understood what she wished for. The points of his teeth were razor sharp and her flesh parted like butter before them as he latched onto her, drinking as she drank, feeling as she felt, the tension taking them both to the point of pain and then beyond it.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

They had held hands and walked the path between Sookie's house and the old Compton estate (as Sookie had called it), through a graveyard that dated back to the civil war. Neither had said a word, they had not needed it. Her wrist had healed completely, as Andre had known it would, and the bond between them had strengthened, as he had wished for. Just shy of the full view of the dilapidated antebellum home, still concealed by the overhang of the weeping trees and Spanish moss Sookie pulled on Andre's hand to stop, and then pulled his body into a long kiss. Finally breaking the silence.

"Thank you." She whispered to him, lips still pressed to his cheek, body still pressed to his.

"I could not let you suffer, not when it was my fault." His fingers ran through her hair; combing it out from the knot it had been tied into.

"How could my clumsiness be your fault?"

"It was my blood that gave you the dreams that distracted you."

"Oh, and what dreams they were." And she kissed him again. He could not help but laugh against her mouth as she did so; not something he was at all used to doing, but something that seemed so natural just then.

"My blood has certainly given you courage." He remarked.

"If that's what you want to call it." It was Sookie's turn to laugh, and yelp just a little as Andre pulled her back into his chest, showing off some of his vampyric strength.

"How could I have ever counted myself happy before I met you Sookie?" The gaze he focused into her eyes made her tremble in his embrace.

"How is it you always know just what to say Andre?"

"You inspire me." He twirled her around, lifting her off her feet for a few moments. Her hair, now free of its bindings, floated around her head like a halo, or whatever the Fairy equivalent of that was, and Andre let himself be enveloped by it. Since she had taken his blood her aura had grown and changed to so much more than just the scent of her otherness and the beat of her sexuality. He felt the bonding beginning to link them together, and he was happy in a complete way that he had never considered possible of himself.

Their walk home was punctuated by simple conversations, and light footfalls through the cemetery. It never occurred to either of them to even be concerned with a possible supernatural encounter, despite the location and the history, and Sookie seemed blissfully unaware of what surrounded her. It was Andre who felt it, and because of his heightened vision, saw it: a dog, (but not just a dog) padding along to his left, weaving amongst the dilapidated tombstones, holding to the shadows as much as it could. He kept himself between it and Sookie, but he knew full well who it was: Sam Merlotte. It followed them almost all the way back to Sookie's home, Andre could hear its panting even when it disappeared behind a tree or stone. He kept every measure of concern to himself though, and guided Sookie up to her porch, his facade never changing.

Most of the lights in the house were dimmed, but a flickering through incompletely drawn curtains betrayed the television, though its volume was significantly lowered. A shuffling met their footsteps on the wooden slats and Adele opened the door. Andre hoped that the shifter was taking careful note of the greetings.

"Welcome home you two."

"You didn't have to wait up for us Gran." Sookie stepped through the open door and Andre followed, grinning as he looked back at the collie that had finally stepped away from the tree line.

"I just wanted to make certain that you were both okay before I went to bed."

"It was very kind of you Adele." He said as the door closed.

ooOOoo

Anxiety was not in the nature of the average Vampire. Besides some obvious concerns: feeding, and a light tight place to sleep, there wasn't much that caused them stress, or at least there hadn't been up until the point of the revelation. Andre suspected, as he rolled over in his bed, that much was about to change, and not only for himself. As much as the risen sun pulled at him he could not rest. He knew that he was running out of time, and his normal patience had been pulled to its very limit. The appearance of Sam Merlotte surveilling them hadn't helped; neither had the letter from Sophie Ann, waiting at his door, in the hand of Eric Northman, begging/ordering him to return to her side. He had a night, perhaps two at the most by his reckoning of her needs, before she would make good on her threat to come to Bon Temps. And while she might never know of Sookie's true gift, she would become enamored of the girl, her beauty, and her innocence, and she would seek to bend and corrupt her by whatever means she could. Andre could not bear the thought of his Sookie being turned into an addicted Renfrew of sorts, under the spell and control of the queen, and well beyond his grasp. It would also be likely then that something would have to be done with Hadley, a task that would fall to him: Sophie Ann had become used to keeping her hands clean. While Andre had no compunction about killing the woman, someday Sookie might discover it, and then there would be no chance of redeeming himself. It was a terrible paradox.

Northman's composed smile, and reek of disdain had done nothing to improve Andre's disposition. His threat had been well received, and Andre sorted out rather quickly, that Northman was also looking for a way to rid himself of the interloper to his Area. It would not have surprised Andre in the least if Northman had made some type of passive-aggressive comment to Sophie Ann himself to prompt her hurried recall. The cowardly act (in Andre's estimation), was not worthy of a Vampire such as Northman, but, of course, when one's child, or bonded was threatened, many rationales were discarded.

And now that Sam Merlotte was aware that Andre had remained in Bon Temps, and had made a friend of Sookie there was no telling what he might do. Merlotte could expose his position to Sookie, or at the least spread lies (half-truths) about him to her. Every terrible eventuality of how he could lose her played itself out over and over in his mind, even past the point of the bleeds, the rivulets staining his pillow and sheets. When he eventually gave in it was to fits and starts of rest, and on waking he felt exhausted and out of control. Though the hot water was often a release, even a shower did not help him. Only when he let his mind reach out to touch hers, however unknown the sensation must have been to Sookie, did Andre finally find a way to ground himself. Though he struggled to hold his grip tight to that control in the face of the obstacles he encountered as he returned to Bon Temps that evening.

"Returning to Bon Temps this night then?" It was not a voice that Andre wanted to hear as he emerged from the condominium building in Shreveport, into the darkened street. He nearly laughed with the frustration he was feeling.

"It is not your concern where the Queen's business takes me Sherriff."

"The Queen's business? I had believed that to be concluded, and that she had asked you to return to New Orleans."

"Have you taken to opening private correspondence then Northman?"

Eric ignored the question; no doubt playing to the script he had plotted out, designed to unhinge Andre, and put him at the disadvantage. Andre had no intention of falling victim to that trap; to be provoked into lashing out at a Sherriff would only give others cause to examine his activities more closely. (And he couldn't very well just send Northman to his final death, there would be even more questions.) The gambit was a careful one.

"My business is nearly concluded Sherriff."

"Ah, then I shall tell the cleaners to attend to the rooms then?"

"As I have said before, I will inform you when I no longer have need of them. Have you other company to prepare for? Surely by now word of your club has spread, has it not?"

"We expect business to be steady."

"An excellent report for the Queen then. I shall be certain to send your regards when I see her next."

"My partners and I would certainly appreciate that." They fell into the nicities of politics.

"Ah yes, how are LongShadow and Pamela?"

"We are all well."

"And surely quite busy at a time like this?"

"Not so busy that I cannot enquire after my guests."

"Well I will not keep your attentions from your duties then Sherriff, as I expect you will not keep me from mine."

Andre moved past the Sherriff, who had remained virtually motionless, leaning against the ornamental fence railing that surrounded the small front yard of the building.

"Perhaps you should bring this woman by the club?" Eric let the invitation slip from his lips like a rapid knife strike, stopping Andre in his tracks.

"And to which woman do you refer Sherriff?"

"The one you are having sex with." The corners of his mouth turned up as he waited for a response to his verbal 'checkmate'.

"Are you certain there is only one?" Andre shot back a wry grin as he left, outwardly playing the game, inwardly feeling sick.

As he had expected, the collie was waiting for him at the end of Sookie's drive.

"And what have you to say to me shifter?" Andre didn't even wait until Sam had changed back into his human form. He also didn't care that the man was standing naked in front of him; no more than Sam seemed to care himself. The exchange with Northman had made him edgy, and angry and the shifter was well poised to receive that fury.

"Stay away from Sookie Stackhouse." Sam's voice was even toned, but his scent betrayed an uncertainty, trying to be hidden under the bravado.

"Why?"

"Because she is an innocent girl who doesn't need to be drawn into your world Vampire."

"She is perfectly capable of making her own choices, and it would seem that she has done just that." Andre twisted up his smile, showing just a bit of fang. "Why is it any concern of yours?"

"She is my employee, and my friend. I don't want to see her get hurt."

"Your friend and your employee?" Andre paused, let his lips part and drew in a satisfied breath that he didn't really need. Things were becoming clearer. "You're in love with her, aren't you?"

Sam stuttered.

"She doesn't know the truth of you Vampire." Sam tried to growl at Andre, but it came out more like a harsh whisper through gritted teeth.

"Oh, and she knows the truth of you? Which one of us is deceiving her more?"

"Leave her alone!"

"Or what?"

"Or I will tell her who you work for."

"And what difference will that make? Perhaps she should know whom she works for and that you have been stalking her at night. What do you think will bother her more?"

"You have thousands of women you could choose from, why her?"

"Because she is special to me." It was perhaps more than he should have said but Sookie's nearness was beginning to encroach on him.

"You are only interested in her because of her skills."

"I do not have to justify myself to you. Now I suggest you go back to your bar, and mind your own business."

"Sookie is my business."

"Not anymore she isn't, she is mine." Andre smiled, knowing it would frustrate the shifter.

"You don't know what you are getting yourself into Vampire."

"And what do you know about it?"

"Sookie has powerful friends."

"Like you? Like the panthers? Not much of a threat."

"You have no idea."

And it hit Andre, Sam did know a great deal more about Sookie then she even knew about herself. It was almost amusing how many secrets there were swirling around the woman, that she had not been made party to.

"You know what she is." He grinned again. That revelation threw Sam off his game for another moment.

"I don't care if you tell her what I am Vampire. I will expose your ties to the Queen, I will tell Sookie what kind of a person you really are. I will tell her every rumor I have heard about you and your dealings on behalf of your Queen. And I will tell others about you. Others who have a great deal of power."

Andre knew exactly who Sam was referring to, even if Sam wasn't willing to say it out loud.

"Go home Shifter, and do what you need to do. I will do what I have to do."

And he walked away, not looking backwards, focused on the dimly lit porch to the exclusion of all else. There was nothing he could do anymore, the choices had all been taken from him; he fought back the bile and cold shock. He needed to see her, even if it was to say goodbye. But damned as he was just then, it was not going to be forever.

As if she had been waiting for him to appear, Sookie stepped out onto the porch as Andre approached. She was wearing a beautiful blue sundress, and her golden hair was loose in waves over her shoulders like the sun crowning the sky; even though it had been centuries since Andre had seen such a thing with his own eyes. His chest began to ache.

"Hi Andre!" She called out, as innocent and enthusiastic as a schoolgirl in love, not caring who might hear. Rushing to her side he pulled her into his arms and held her against his chest, feeling and committing to memory the smell of her, the sound of her heartbeat, and the warmth of her body.

"Andre? What's wrong?" He only clung to her harder. "Andre?"

"Oh Sookie." She stiffened in his grasp and pulled backwards a little.

"You're leaving, aren't you?" She said.

He wasn't even surprised that she understood. Nothing about her, not even her abilities to read him after such a short time, seemed out of the realm of her talents.

"I don't want to go." He whispered as he let her go.

"Then why?" Her eyes were beginning to tear up, and the sparkles were as enchanting as her blood.

"I have to keep you safe."

"And going away will keep me safe? I've seen you, you're strong enough to take on anything."

"Not anything Sookie, not hardly." He took both her hands and tried to guide her to sit.

"I don't want to you leave Andre."

He dropped to his knees in front of her, his head hanging as his misery overwhelmed him.

"I'll come with you." She squeaked.

"You can't." He looked up at her and she gasped at the site of him, crimson staining his face.

"You're bleeding." Sookie reached out with her fingertips to touch his cheeks.

"I'm crying." Tears fell over the rims of her eyes as well.

"Please Andre?"

"Look at me Sookie, look into my eyes."

"I love you Andre."

His resolve wavered for just a moment, and he had to answer her plea.

"I love you too Sookie." Her smile was beautiful, and he stared at her for a good few moments, steeling himself. "You are so special Sookie. You make me feel so worthwhile, and so loved, and that is the only reason I am doing this." He touched her lips before she could say anything else. "Look at me." And he had her.

"Sookie, when I finish speaking to you, you will feel exhausted and you will sleep peacefully this whole night. When you wake, to the sun and the day, you will not remember anything of what has happened between us. You will not remember meeting me." He hated the transfixed look of her eyes, feeling as if he was violating every trust she had placed in him. "You will be innocent once again. But I will return for you. When next I see you I will have made everything safe for us. And when next you taste my blood you will remember it all; how much I have loved you, and how it has felt when we made love." He caressed her cheek. "I will protect you forever Sookie. I promise this to you."

"I leave you with one gift my cherished one. There is something so very special about you, something I need you to bring out. Other vampires will cross your path and I will not let any of them force you to do anything against your free will." He understood the hypocrisy of his statement, but he had to keep talking, or risk falling apart completely. "In your mind there is a place, a place that you can draw on, if any Vampire comes to you and tries to glamour you. You will let it come to the fore, to keep them out of your mind. I leave you with this small measure of protection when I can not be at your side."

He wiped an angry tear from his cheek, not breaking his gaze, not blinking, afraid of the finality of the gesture. He fumbled for her hands, twining his fingers into hers, squeezing against the limpness he had created.

"I will love you forever Sookie. Now go and sleep, you are exhausted." He dropped his eyes to the ground until she stood and walked away from him. Andre heard the screen door open, pause, and then close carefully. He let the sob he had been holding in tumble out.

"That was the bravest thing I have ever seen anyone do."

"I don't feel very brave." Andre whispered to the faded boards beneath his feet.

"You made a heartbreaking choice, but you did it for the right reasons Andre." He looked up at the elderly woman who was watching him with a calm reverence, but didn't stand.

"Did I Adele? Did I do right by her? Is it fair to take all this away from her?"

"It is the only thing you could do." Adele's hands were clutched together, and her head cocked to the left, the halo of grey hair framing her head in an angelic sort of fashion.

"You know what she is don't you? And you know all about me?"

"Yes." She nodded sweetly, "on both counts."

"And you don't hate me?"

"For loving my granddaughter? Oh no. I would be the last person to judge how and why people fall in love, and what they do in its name. I give everyone the benefit of the doubt Andre. And you have proved to be worth it."

"I hate this." He finally rose, steadying himself on the arm of one of the patio chairs.

"I know you do, it is so obvious."

"I will come back for her. Do you believe me?"

"I do."

"You are an amazing woman Adele Stackhouse. Sookie is lucky to have you."

The two stared at each other for a moment. Andre could hear Adele's even breathing and her even heartbeat. She wasn't at all scared of him, and for an odd reason that gave Andre some comfort.

"Are you going to take away my memory of you as well?" It was quite matter of fact, the way Adele asked, as if she clearly expected an affirmative answer and was not at all bothered by the notion.

"No. I have no doubt that you can keep my secret, you seem adept at things like that. Besides, other vampires may come in search of Sookie, perhaps other supernaturals as well. If they mean to harm her I need you to be able to contact me." Andre reached into the pocket of his pants and pulled out a wrinkled piece of paper. He'd written the numbers on it much earlier in the night, not quite certain then into whose hand he would entrust it. He held it out for Adele to take.

"There are two numbers there. The top one is my private telephone; you must try that one first. The bottom one is for the place where I live. Tell whomever you speak to you first name only, and that you need to speak with me. You must insist on it, and I have no doubt you will convince them to pass on the message. I will come to her, and to you as quickly as I can; or I will send someone trustworthy in my stead."

"I'll hide it somewhere safe so Sookie doesn't find it." She put it into the pocket of her dress carefully.

"Speak kindly of my people Adele, so that when I return Sookie will not be frightened of me, and I may restore what I have taken."

"I will."

"I offer you my sincere thanks Adele. I will never forget your kindness."

"Or I yours Andre. Take care of yourself."

"Until we meet again then?"

"Till then."

ooOOoo

Fate has a way of playing with all beings, human or otherwise.

Andre had no way of knowing that his entreaty could not be fulfilled, that Adele would be murdered before any Vampyric threat to Sookie had revealed itself to her. He waited for a phone call that never came, not daring to make inquiries, however subtle, especially after Compton had been dispatched to continue to monitor the Bon Temps 'situation'. He kept himself busy and distracted for far longer than the months he had hoped it would take to establish Sophie Ann into the breather world; driving himself towards an established position that would allow him to claim Sookie as his own with no objection in the eyes of the court and the Sheriffs. The summit was supposed to be that place, that opportunity to set Sophie Ann on her pedestal and then withdraw from her constant desires and needs. His maneuvering had ensured Sookie would be there, which would give him the opportunity to find her, but again fate stepped forward, and when he finally was able to get her alone and into a position to have her that cursed Sherriff had appeared to seemingly 'rescue' her from his evil clutches. He had been so close to having her take his blood then in that back hall. To his dismay he watched as she took Northman's blood, and the bond that was growing between them sickened him greatly, it had taken everything he had not to kill Northman in front of her in his rage. But he did not wish Sookie to see that violence in him, and to have it color her resurfaced memories, and so he had stepped back, swallowing all emotions, masking himself with the haughty indifference and danger he had always shown to others, and prepared himself to wait one more night before revealing the truth to Sookie.

The explosion in the hotel had also not been anticipated, and Andre had barely been aware enough in his daytime slumber to ensure Sophie Ann's temporary safety. He felt the fall he took as nearly endless, and the pain of the landing, but still it seemed so hard to piece it all together. When the debris had been pulled away from his broken body the appearance of the tiger, backlit by the sunshine he had so long abandoned had been a true surprise. There had not even been time to consider his own true death before the stake pierced his chest, or time to wonder if Sookie would somehow morn his loss.

Fin

A sincere thank you to everyone who has lent me some of their precious time by reading this story. Also thanks to everyone who sent in reviews. I know this is not my typical HEA, but I had always intended to keep this within cannon. I hope you can forgive me.


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